


The Doctor And Our Universe

by Sop12345d



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s04e01 Partners in Crime, Episode: s04e02 The Fires of Pompeii, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Misunderstandings, Podfic Welcome, Science Fiction, Self-Insert, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 09:12:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 33,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9172909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sop12345d/pseuds/Sop12345d
Summary: One day, I'm just minding my own business, when the Tenth Doctor shows up on my front porch. What the hell is going on?





	1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. I just own my OC. Anything that you recognize belongs to BBC.**

* * *

I sighed, fed up with my English teacher's idea of a fun assignment. I was currently trying to squeeze a good idea from my brain for a soliloquy I had to write for my English class. But no, it couldn't be  _just_ a soliloquy. It also had to be from the perspective of a character from a Shakespearean play, include three literary devices, have a rhyme pattern, be about a current event  _and_ be in iambic pentameter. For the love of God! How could I be getting high 90s in Science class, yet have trouble with writing a supposedly simple poem?

Anyway, as I was about to look up a word that rhymed with conflict on my phone, the doorbell rang. I immediately tensed, knowing that I was home alone and it couldn't be anyone that I knew, since I had no friends in this neighbourhood. Of course, my dog, Maggie, started barking ferociously (kind of ironic, considering that she weighs literally 8 pounds) and ran to the window to see who was outside. I stood up too, since if someone looked through the window, they would be able to see me sitting on the couch, and moved out of sight, where I could make out a figure standing at the door. Of course, the glass was frosted, so I couldn't see them perfectly, but I could make out that they were of medium height, maybe a little on the tall side, and not very wide.

Of course, I didn't open the door (my mother had managed to instil  _some_ form of self-preservation in me while I was a little kid), but I took a quick peek out the window to see who it was. What I saw made my eyes widen to the size of saucers and my heart start beating faster.

A man who looked remarkably like David Tennant was standing at the door, smacking a silver stick that resembled the Doctor's famous sonic screwdriver against his hand, as if to get it working again, then he pointed it at my door while making the classic high-pitched sound that the sonic usually makes.  _Oh, Jacqueline is_ so _going to get it!_ I thought.

I picked up Maggie and put her in her crate so she wouldn't go running outside, then I opened the door. David Tennant stood there, momentarily startled by my sudden appearance but masking it well, discreetly stuffing his screwdriver into his pocket inside his coat while smiling at me and introducing himself, "Hello! I'm the Doctor. I was just wondering, do you know what day it is?"

 _Okay, I don't know how Jacqueline or Shannon managed to wrangle this,_  I thought.  _But this must be one of them, because this is not possible._

I looked at him for a second, sizing him up while ignoring my dog's frantic howling at hearing a stranger's voice and me opening the door to them. Same long tan coat, same pinstriped brown suit, same blue-at-the-end sonic screwdriver, same wild hair... He must've really gotten into character for this one. I didn't reply to the actor and simply stepped onto my front porch, looking into the corners of my door and around my mailbox.

"Um, what are you doing?" David asked, watching me curiously.

"Looking for cameras," I said nonchalantly. For David Tennant to be at my door, this either had to be a prank or I had gone insane. I was reasonably sure that I would have seen some warning signs before I went completely insane, so this had to be prank by one of my Doctor Who-loving friends, Jacqueline or Shannon.

"Cameras... that's new. Why cameras?" David asked, stepping back as I leaned back to look up at my roof to see if they had somehow placed them there. Any minute now, Jacqueline or Shannon (or  _both,_ knowing how devious they were when combined) would jump out from the side of my house and yell, "Surprise" or "You've been pranked!" or something like that. Well, I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of fangirling and freaking out over an actor.

"Because this is a prank," I replied simply to David's question. I had to give the guy some credit, he was a great actor. He even looked genuinely confused when I said that.

"What's a prank?" he asked, leaning forward to hear my answer.

"This is. You can't be here. You're an actor from a TV show." I answered, trying to look serious. Even though I had already figured out that this was a prank, I couldn't say that I wasn't pleased that the actor that played my favourite incarnation of the Doctor from my favourite TV show had somehow showed up on my front porch.

"Sorry...What?" David asked incredulously. I knew he had heard me perfectly fine, he was probably just trying to save face and buy my friends a few more minutes of me being "pranked".

"Yeah. Your name is David Tennant. You play the 10th Doctor from Doctor Who, a British TV show." I rattled off, hoping to see some form of recognition on his face. However, when I looked, there was none. All I saw was shock and wariness. Interesting.

"Sorry... what? Doctor  _what?_  A TV show?" the actor asked in quick succession. Now he looked really confused.

I decided to make it clearer that I was having none of this so that he knew that the game was up. "Yeah. You know, the one with the Time Lord with two hearts who destroyed his home planet Gallifrey in the Last Great Time War to kill the Daleks and who travels all of time and space in this TARDIS with various, mostly human companions." I said in a rush.

The actor actually took a few stumbling steps backwards, his eyes wide and his mouth agape. Then he took out his sonic screwdriver and started 'scanning' me with it. "How... how can you know all of that? Who are you?" I felt the first flicker of doubt in my mind. Okay, now he was  _really_ acting like he had no clue what was going on. Had I actually gone mad? Or was this just a very vivid dream? Because obviously, the Doctor can't be real! Even if he was, he would be existing in a parallel universe and it was impossible to cross universes. Well, Rose Tyler had done it, but we weren't advanced enough to invent that sort of technology.

By now, we were both on my driveway and I could see up and down my street. I looked to my right and some ways down the street, a blue police box stood there. Oh, of course the TARDIS was here too! I really need to figure out how to tell if I'm dreaming while I'm doing it. I started walking towards it with determination, ready to prove to at least myself that this was all a prank or something. David Tennant saw me suddenly walking towards his 'ship' and followed me, wondering what I thought I was doing. "What are you doing? Don't go in there!" he told me when I reached the police box and I moved to open it. I, of course, ignored him and pushed the door open, expecting to see a small, blue wood interior.

But instead of that, I came across the last thing I expected.  _It was bigger on the inside._

I saw coral twisted pillars with a grungy look and a console with a Time Rotor that moved up and down constantly. It was the 10th Doctor's console room!

"But-but that's impossible..." I muttered, mostly to myself, but I think the man standing behind me heard, because he ran a hand through his spiky hair and tried to reassure me.

"Yeah, it's bigger on the inside, I know. But how can this be?" now he seemed to be talking to himself while pacing back and forth. "How can a human know that? I've never even met you before! I was just in the TARDIS when the old girl picked up an anomaly and I went to take a look! Bit more of a bumpy ride today than usual, but that doesn't explain the fact..." then he looked up suddenly and stared at me. "You're not from my future, are you?"

"No, not as far as I know," I replied, trying to sound casual so this actor (the  _Doctor?!_ ) would calm down already. He had that classic "Ten" look on his face when he was seriously stressed or panicked. The wide eyes, the grimacing mouth, the frustrated frown... He was even starting to hyperventilate as he probably tried to rationalize what was happening and how I could know so much about him. It was then that I made the biggest mistake of my short life. Then, the true realization that the flipping Tenth  _Doctor_ was standing right in front me (not the actor who played him, the  _real, actual, freaking Doctor!)_ hit me and I stumbled back a bit, just like how the Doctor had when I had revealed my knowledge about his past and who he was, and I felt myself trip slightly over a raised surface, like when you walk into a room in a house that's slightly higher than the room you were just in and you didn't notice where you were going. I stiffened and tried to stop myself from falling backwards, but I failed and ended up falling on my rear end on a smooth floor. Hold it, smooth floor? Shouldn't I have fallen onto rough pavement?

It was then that the thought occurred to me to have a look at my surroundings and I gasped in wonder. I had accidentally fallen into the TARDIS' doorway! I stood up a bit shakily and gazed at the humming room. It was exactly like on the TV show, except just so much  _... cooler,_ as the Eleventh Doctor would say. There is a huge difference between a scene from a TV show and the real thing. For one, the TV show's console room didn't always have the cloister bells ringing frantically... wait, what?

"No!" the Doctor yelled, dashing inside his sentient ship and straight to the console, flipping switches and pushing buttons and banging things with his mallet. "Behave!" he ordered, and I stroked a nearby pillar, empathizing with how distressed the TARDIS must be if she was ringing the cloister bells.

Suddenly, the floor began to shake and I grabbed the railing to steady myself before I fell. I watched the Doctor as he ran manically around the console, trying to stabilize her, I suppose. Why was the TARDIS being so frantic? Were we moving?

I realized later that I should've walked out of that blue Police Box the moment that I fell into it, but I didn't, and I can't change that now. Eventually, the TARDIS stopped shaking, the cloister bells stopped ringing and the Doctor stopped running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

I think we (me, the Doctor and the TARDIS) all simultaneously took a deep, calming breath, then the Doctor got down to business. "Alright, then," he started with a serious look on his face. "You say there's a TV show called Doctor Who. Show me."

I complied with shaking hands (hey, I had just survived a trip in the supposedly fictional TARDIS-give me a break!) and took out my cell phone. I pointed out the "No Signal" sign to the Doctor, who soniced my phone and then watched as I put in the passcode and opened the videos app, where I had bought, through quite a lot of gift cards and birthday money over the years, all the episodes of the 2005 Doctor Who. I had watched the first episode of the classic Doctor Who, but it seemed boring to me, so I put off watching the rest. I chose series one, episode one, simply called "Rose" and pressed play. Immediately, the screen showed Earth, then it zoomed in on London, England, where Rose Tyler was just waking up to her alarm in her mother's apartment.

We watched the screen for five minutes, then the Doctor said softly, "Stop," and I pressed pause, waiting for his reaction. He look quite stunned and stumbled to the pilot seat to sit down. I followed him, wary of how serious and hard his face looked. He started his habit of talking (well, muttering) to himself. "But how? How could anyone know about my companions? And how could they make it into a TV show without me noticing it? But, most of all, why do so? It just doesn't make sense!" he cried the last sentence out loudly in frustration, running a hand through his spiky hair.

I was startled and still quite shocked by the appearance of the last Time Lord (well, the last one until the Twelfth Doctor finds Gallifrey again), but I still felt a small need to make him feel better. I had always wanted to comfort the lonely Tenth Doctor while I watched the show and now I had a chance to do so. I stepped closer to him and patted his arm reassuringly, saying, "It's ok, Doctor. I know that you hate things that you don't know about, but I think I have a theory." The Doctor lifted his head and glanced at me curiously. I continued, "I think that my universe is parallel to yours, or maybe my universe is the first universe and all the other universes are parallels which contain the characters from our fictional works, such as Doctor Who."

The Doctor seemed to digest this theory, then after a while, he replied, "Not such a bad idea. It's plausible. But, then am I in a parallel universe right now? The TARDIS shouldn't be able to cross universes!" He jumped up and started fiddling with the console, probably trying to figure out the TARDIS' coordinates in space and time. Finally, he yelled, "Got it!" and told me, "Come here." I followed him and peered at the same screen he was pointing to. "That shows our current coordinates, but if I do this..." here he typed in something on the keyboard, "...it shows the past coordinates the TARDIS has been fixed at, with the most recent at the top. It says that a few minutes ago, the coordinates for the universe we were in were different than normal, so..." he let that thought trail off as I put the pieces together.

The TARDIS' cloister bells ringing. The Doctor running around the console like mad. The floor shaking. My phone with the "No Signal" sign. The now "normal" coordinates.

We weren't in my universe anymore.

We were in a parallel universe.

The Doctor's universe.

And there was no way back to my universe.


	2. Chapter 2

I put a hand to my mouth, suddenly recalling everything that I had just accidentally left behind. My mother, my dog, my friends, my high school... I was now completely cut off from my life. The life that I had lead for 15 years. The expression  _you never really appreciate anything until you lose it_ revealed its meaning to me in full, cold clarity.

I felt the Doctor's hand on my shoulder, obviously trying to reassure me, but I didn't want reassurance. I just wanted to go home. So, I roughly shrugged the Doctor's hand off my shoulder and ran for the hallway to the rest of the TARDIS without looking back with tears in my eyes.

* * *

I ran and ran and  _ran._ I think I was in a state of shock, so I didn't really realize how tired I was getting until the TARDIS thankfully put a dead end in front of me so I'd stop. By then, I was panting and starting to cry. I couldn't believe it... my family, my friends, my school, my planet, my entire  _universe_ was gone. Lost to me forever and I was stuck in this new, strange universe, where the Last of the Time Lords travels in time and space in a little blue box and aliens attack London practically every Christmas. I slid down to the floor with my back to the wall, sobbing.  _This can't be real,_ I though desperately.  _This has got to be some elaborate prank, or dream, or even a hallucination._ I don't know which option I preferred. It was either I was actually,  _literally_ in the freaking bigger-on-the-inside TARDIS, with no way back to my universe, or I was going to wake up at one point in a straight jacket. That only made me sob harder.

I don't know how much time went by while I sat on the floor (you can never really tell in the TARDIS) but I know that, some time later, the TARDIS must've tried to comfort me, because a door to a nearby room opened with a squeak and I looked up, my eyes rimmed red from crying. There was a soft light coming from the room and for some reason I felt pulled toward it. So, I stood on shaky legs and shuffled to the doorway. What I saw inside the room made me instantly want to give the TARDIS a hug, if I could.

The room the TARDIS had made was  _exactly_ like my room in my universe. Same layout, same bedspread, same view from the window, heck, she had even copied all of my favourite books. I took a trembling step forward and collapsed on my bed, jumping up and down slightly to test it to see if it felt the same. It did. I lay back and stared at the popcorn ceiling, my tears coming to a stop. I took a deep breath and smelled the air in my room, taking in the scent of  _home._ If I couldn't just make out the grungy coral hallway outside the door, I could believe that I was home again. Upon having this thought, the hallway changed before my eyes in a shimmer of yellow light and the hallway outside my bedroom appeared. Same beige paint, same extra bookshelf (I had to put a bookshelf outside my room in the hallway because there was no more space in my room) ... I realized that while I was sitting on the floor sobbing earlier, the TARDIS must've been scanning my thoughts (I'd been thinking of my house, what else?) and she'd made me a perfect duplicate of my room.  _Thank you,_ I thought, wondering if she'd hear me. A happy hum of the walls was my answer.  _Glad to help,_ she said.

I got up and walked around my room, not that there was much space to walk around anyway. My room was ...  _had_ been kind of small. Finally, done with the tour, I sat on my bed again, thinking hard. I knew that travel between parallel worlds is impossible, but it was only impossible because the Time Lords were gone. However, I knew that later in the show, the Doctor, in his 11th incarnation (well, 12th if you count the War Doctor) will discover that he didn't blow up Gallifrey and that his home planet is locked away in a pocket universe. I had to hope that one day, the Doctor would find the Time Lords again and they could open up the paths between parallel worlds again. Hell, they might even take me back in time to a bit after I disappeared from my universe. I then wondered if my mom had come home yet, if she'd searched the house for me yet, if she'd called the police yet. She'd be devastated and probably convinced that I was kidnapped or something. Well, I might as well be. Accidentally kidnapped by the Doctor and the TARDIS. I pushed aside those dark thoughts and stood up, determined. I was going to find the Doctor and I was going to get some answers.

I stepped out of my room to see a perfect replica of the hallway outside my room at home. I walked down it with quick steps, rapidly nearing the end of it. I turned a corner and the coral hallway started again. I followed this hallway through many twists and turns back to the console room, where the Doctor seemed to be brooding.

I guess he didn't hear me coming, because when I cleared my throat, he jumped a foot in the air and turned to look at me. "Oh, sorry," he said with a sheepish grin. "Didn't hear you coming."

I nodded and said, "It's okay."

The Doctor seemed to size me up, then he asked, "Are you alright?" I have him an incredulous look and he hastened to add, "Sorry, of course you're not alright, you're the king of not-alright right now... sorry, you're the  _queen_ of-"

"Doctor!" I exclaimed loudly. I could tell that he was about to go off on a tangent, like he usually does. "I have some questions." The Doctor looked curious when I said that and slightly wary. Before he could reply, I continued. "First off, why were you in my universe in the first place? Secondly, why did the TARDIS leave my universe? And thirdly, what the hell are we going to do now?"

The Doctor looked slightly overwhelmed by my rush of one-after-the-other questions, but he recovered and answered, "Well, I was tracking an anomaly- you do know what an anomaly is, do you?" I nodded and he continued. "Okay, well the TARDIS had picked up on its coordinates and we travelled to those coordinates, but the ride was so bumpy, I mean, bumpier than normal, and when we finally arrived, I was on your street. The sonic," and here he took out the sonic screwdriver and tossed it into the air before catching it again, "picked up the signal and I just followed it to your door. Now," and here his face went all serious. "I need to know something. Was there anything strange, anything weird in your house? Anything you saw, you touched ...?"

"Joyce," I provided. "Joyce Summers."

The Doctor paused and said, "Nice name, Joyce Summers. Anyway, was there anything strange going on in your house?"

I hesitated and thought about it before coming to a conclusion. "Nope. Nothing. But I think I know who the anomaly is."

Oh, he was interested by that. "Who is?" he asked eagerly.

"Me," I replied.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:**

**FYI, anything science-y mentioned here is absolute crap. I made it up. :)**

* * *

The Doctor took in a sudden breath, as if he was surprised. "You? But... how? Why?"

I started to explain my theory. "You see, in my universe, there was that show Doctor Who that I showed you. Well, I've seen a lot of it and all that knowledge is in my head. What if you were tracking me, because I know your future?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Nah, there's no way that even the TARDIS is that strong. How could she pick up a signal from a simple human's- sorry," he added as I scowled, insulted, at him. Excuse me, but I have an IQ of 142! That's pretty smart for a human. "-mind from a world a universe away?"

I got an idea and told him, "Scan me with the sonic."

"What?" he asked, surprised by my suggestion.

"Scan me with your sonic screwdriver! It'll say if I'm the anomaly, right?"

"Well... we could always give it a shot," the Doctor said and pointed the device at my head. It made the high-pitched sound (I can't think of any other way to describe it) and beeped. The Doctor looked at the screen and his eyebrows flew up into his hairline. "Okay, that's new."

"What?" I asked, trying to peek at the screen.

"You  _are_ the anomaly." he simply replied, but I could practically  _see_ the gears turning in his head. The Doctor was working something out, something science-y. "But that can't be... a human bio-signature can't stretch across universes... unless it was amplified? But by who? And more importantly, why?" he muttered to himself, pacing back and forth.

"Amplified? What do you mean?" I asked, half-knowing the answer.

"For the TARDIS to pick up your coordinates, your human bio-signature would have to be amplified many times. As in, 1000 times." The Doctor explained. "For your bio-signature to be that strong, someone must have deliberately made it so."

I didn't reply and quickly ran through a list of possible suspects for doing this. Finally, I thought I found the most likely one, but I wasn't sure if I was right (plus my explanation of how I knew this suspect would definitely mess up the Doctor's timeline), so I didn't mention it.

"So... why did the TARDIS leave my universe?" I reminded the Doctor, hoping for a clear answer.

"Well, you must know that travel between parallel worlds is impossible," he said, leading up to it. I nodded and motioned for him to go on. "Theoretically, there are holes, tears in the fabric of the universes, that sometimes lead to other universes. The TARDIS must've gone through one of those tears to get to you, then when the hole started to close up, she panicked and got out of there fast so we wouldn't be stranded."

I had already guessed as much, but I had wanted to hear the words out loud, sealing my fate. I must've looked pretty dejected, because the Doctor placed a hand on my arm comfortingly, looked into my eyes and said softly, "Hey. It'll be alright. I'll figure out a way to get you back." I was tempted to ask him if he was lying because rule number one: the Doctor lies. But I stopped myself and decided that, of all universes to be stuck in, the Doctor Who universe had to be the best one. Might as well enjoy it.

The Doctor took his hand off my arm as I asked, "Okay, so now that that's settled, what do we do now?"

The Doctor looked conflicted for a second before replying, "Well, that's up to you. I could take you back to Earth-this universe's Earth, I mean," he hastily corrected himself, "-and we could find you a place to live while I get this universe thing sorted out. By the way, how old are you?" he asked, eyeing my height.

"Fifteen," I replied, watching his reaction. The Doctor actually looked surprised by my answer. "Why?"

"It's just that physically you look like a teenager, but when you speak it's like you're an adult," the Doctor said, walking around to the other side of the console.

I followed him, saying, "Well, I've got an old soul. So, is my only option to be dumped on Earth?"

The Doctor looked up from his fiddling with the console's controls and mumbled, "Well, you could always... come with me." His last three words were quieter than the rest and he looked down again when he said them, as if to seem casual, though I knew it was because he dare not see my reaction in case I said no.

I was quiet, thinking it over. If I stuck with the Doctor, I'd have a better chance of going home. Plus, now that I was here, I'd have to make sure that he stuck to the right timeline. And anyways, who doesn't want to travel in all of time and space?

The Doctor clearly thought that my hesitation meant that I was trying to find a nice way of saying no and he started to say, "Sorry, I understand why-"

I cut him off before he could finish. "Yes," I said, and meant it.

He looked almost comically shocked with his hair standing on end like that. I think the Doctor didn't even  _allow_ himself to believe me. "Really?" he whispered, like it was some great secret.

I nodded, trying to look as sincere as possible, and whispered back, "Really."

The Doctor stopped flicking switches back and forth and pushing buttons again and again and looked me in the eye. "Do you understand what that involves? It's not exactly safe, here in the TARDIS. It's an odd life."

I spoke without hesitation. "Not safe? Have you  _seen_ Earth lately? Aliens attack almost every Christmas."

He chuckled at that and gave in. "Alright, alright." For the first time since I met him face-to-face, the Doctor looked genuinely happy. Seeing him happy made me happy instantly; I guess I like it when I brighten people' days up.

He walked around the console again, typing things and checking screens. I figured that now would be as good a time as any to figure out what part of his timeline he was at. I didn't see Rose, Donna or Martha, so maybe he was in an in between-companions period. "Doctor," I started to ask.

"Yes, Joyce?" he asked, now lying underneath the console, fixing something with the sonic.

"Well, since I'm going to be travelling with you, we should know a bit about each other. Who's your current companion?"

The Doctor slid out from under the console and looked at me. "No one is," he said solemnly. "Well, I suppose now you are," he added with a cheeky grin that I echoed.

"Okay, but who was your last companion?" I pressed on. He could either be after Rose got stuck in Pete's world, after he first met Donna but before he met Martha or after Donna lost her memories of the Doctor.

"That would be Martha," he replied, getting back to his fixing-up of the TARDIS under the console.

"The Woman Who Walked The Earth," I said, recalling her nickname. If you though about it, practically every companion of the Doctor's in the new Doctor Who show had a nickname. Rose Tyler was The Pink-And-Yellow Human, Martha Jones was The Woman Who Walked The Earth, Donna Noble was The Most Important Woman In The Universe, Amy Pond was The Girl Who Waited, Rory Williams was The Last Centurion, Clara Oswald was The Impossible Girl...

And god knows what other companions had been invented in the Doctor Who franchise since I'd left my universe.

"Yep," the Doctor replied, his forcedly casual tone startling me out of my reverie. I could tell that me bringing up Martha had hurt him, so I went onto my next question.

"We're you planning on going anywhere or anywhen particular soon?" I asked, getting used to saying, "any _when_ ".

"Well, I had heard some chatter about a new weight loss pill called Adipose being recently sold on Earth," the Doctor replied, putting on his glasses. I don't think they even had lenses; he just liked to wear them, I guess.

I remembered what happened in the episode "Partners In Crime" and how the Doctor met Donna again and she became his companion. That definitely needed to happen. "Great! Why don't we go there? It sounds suspicious," I added, hoping to prod him into going.

The Doctor paused, seemed to think about it, then rejected the idea. "Nah, that looks too boring! I could take you to Barcelona! The planet, not the city. They have dogs with no noses!"

I giggled at hearing the Tenth Doctor's famous line, then shook my head seriously. "No, I'd rather go investigate the Adipose," I repeated, giving him the most significant looks I could muster.

Whether he saw the look in my eyes or whether he just decided to take the TARDIS where I wanted to go since I was new here, I'll never know. The Doctor grinned madly and exclaimed, "Okay then! Off to investigate the Adipose!" And with a final, "Allons-y!" he pushed a lever and the console room started to shake, the Time Rotor moved up and down more quickly and the famous screeching of the brakes being on while the TARDIS was in flight sounded out. I grabbed a useful bar in front of me to steady myself as the Doctor did the same. We both grinned at each other, happy to be on the move.


	4. Partners in Crime Part 1

The TARDIS landed with a thump and the room went back to normal. Well, as normal as a console room in a transdimensional time machine can be. The Doctor, ever excited, fairly galloped to the TARDIS doors, then stopped himself, letting me go first. I smiled appreciatively at him, then opened the door. Immediately, I heard people talking and the sound of cars going by. I stepped out and we were on a London street full of people walking to and fro. The Doctor leapt out behind me and closed the door.

"Right!" he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. He still had on that brown pinstriped suit, the long tan coat and the white Converse. "Adipose Industries is this way," he pointed out as he gestured to our right.

We started off with both of us in silence, but pretty soon that got awkward so we started talking again.

"So, Joyce," the Doctor started, still looking straight ahead. "Where are you from? Your accent is American."

"Canadian," I corrected him. "Though my family is originally from Turkey." I said this last part in a quieter voice, remembering how proud my mother was of being Turkish and how she'd have conversations with her mother (my hilarious grandmother) in Turkish. Of course, I'd never understand a word they were saying, but I could pick up the gist of it through their tones and the occasional English word or two. I felt something hot and wet slide down my cheek and I wiped at it, surprised to find a tear there. Had I been crying?

The Doctor started to speak again and I rushed to put a brave face on for him. "So, were we in Canada?" he asked. Then he quickly specified what he meant. "When we were back there, I mean. In your universe."

"Yeah," was all I replied, not feeling like talking about it. I'm very good at hiding my emotions from others, even sometimes myself, so I was just trying to push aside those depressing thoughts and finally meet Donna, the Most Important Woman In The Universe.

The Doctor seemed to accept my short reply and a couple of minutes later, we arrived at a big glass building with a sign saying, "Adipose Industries" in the front. I saw a head of vivd red hair heading for the front door and quickly got on the other side of the Doctor, hoping to block his view of Donna until they met when the time was right. Instead of going through the front door like  _normal_ people, the Doctor lead me to a side door, where I played lookout while he soniced the lock.

"Is this even  _legal?_ " I hissed, looking behind us and trying to avoid the sparks spitting out from the door.

"It's legal enough," the Doctor replied casually, not caring. I sighed and followed him inside.

Suddenly, I remembered the bit where the Doctor showed his psychic paper to a guard in the basement and to the film employee above the press room and I whispered, "Doctor, I don't have any ID!"

"That's alright, we'll just say it's take your little sister to work day," the Doctor whispered back with a wink.

We stepped into a staircase and I said, louder this time, since there was no danger of anyone hearing us, "Little  _sister_? Are you  _crazy?_  I don't even look like you!"

"Well, you bear a slight resemblance," the Doctor said, and I hoped that it looked that way to any of the Adipose Industries staff. I suppose it could've been worse. I could've been with the ninth Doctor, who I looked nothing alike.

We reached the basement and passed a guard, who the Doctor showed his psychic paper to, saying, "John Smith, Health and Safety. This is my little sister; it's Take Your Little Sibling To Work Day." I held my breath as the guard looked me over, then let it out as he shrugged and moved on. As we walked away, I told the Doctor, "Never again am I joining you for an investigation without ID."

The Doctor's laugh echoed off the dark walls.

* * *

We went up another staircase (honestly, it was like a maze in here) and entered the projection room above the press room, where that stupid woman, Ms. Foster, was giving a speech to the press. The Doctor showed his psychic paper and said he was from Health and Safety and that it was Take Your Little Sibling To Work Day, adding "Film department" to make it sound more credible. Once the Doctor had finished observing, he thanked the puzzled man in charge of the projector and we left. In the hallway, I hissed incredulously, "Film department? In Health and Safety?"

"Sorry! It was the best I could come up with," he replied, creeping down the hallway towards the stairs again.

* * *

We exited by the still slightly smoking side door and returned to the TARDIS. The Doctor ran a hand through his hair as he seemed to consider our options. "Well, I've investigated the place, like you said. Why don't we go somewhere else? We could go to Cumbria in 1207 and be monks!" he exclaimed in excitement.

I gasped as I thought of  _The Bells of St John_ , where Eleven went to peruse Clara Oswald's impossibility and thought,  _Yeah, bad idea._ "Um, that sounds boring! Who wants to be a  _monk?_ Monks are not cool!" I said, echoing Eleven's words from hundreds of years in the future. It was a bit creepy that the Doctor had decided to go to Cumbria in 1207 and be monks, which was his exact plan in the future, but I didn't question it further and hoped I had persuaded him to not create a huge paradox.

"Really? Well, if you say so. Where and when do you want to go then?" the Doctor asked, his brow furrowed. Maybe he had heard the panic in the tone of my voice when he mentioned Cumbria.

"Why don't we stay here and keep investigating? You could get a list of Adipose Industries' clients and interview them to find out more." I suggested, knowing that's exactly what he did in the show.

"Well..." the Doctor trailed off, trying to come up with a good argument for that, but evidently couldn't come up with one, because finally, he grinned and ran for the door, shouting over his shoulder, "Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go interview the clients!"

I hesitated because the scene between the Doctor and the flirty employee of Adipose Industries was going to happen and I did  _not_ want to be present for that awkward moment. Plus, I knew that Ms. Foster would go over the film of the surveillance cameras later today and she would definitely notice if a kid was randomly in her office. The Doctor and Donna had blended in, it being easier for them as they were adults and were good at making it look like they belonged someplace they didn't, but I was a teenager with no acceptable business in an office building.

"Uh, why don't you go? I'll stay here and get more settled into the TARDIS, maybe explore a bit." I said, stopping in the blue box's doorway.

The Doctor looked stricken for a second, then covered it up. "Sure! Don't touch the controls!" he ordered as he ran off.

* * *

I walked around the console, in deep thought. Why had the Doctor looked so stricken when I had said that I didn't want to come with him? Was it because he was lonely? Possibly. I didn't know exactly how much time had passed since Martha had left him, but I could guess that it was some time. Maybe he was just getting used to having another person around again and he thought that I was pulling out because I thought it was too dangerous. Did the Doctor think that I wanted to leave the TARDIS? Never in a million years did I want to do that! Now that I was here, I had to stay with the Doctor to make sure my presence in this universe didn't disrupt his timeline. Plus, if I ever wanted to get home again, I had to stay with the Doctor so he could one day find Gallifrey and the Time Lords.

So, having figured out why the Doctor had seemed so anxious, I decided to explore the TARDIS like I'd said I would. I wandered aimlessly down the coral hallways, letting the TARDIS choose my destination. First, she took me to the library, which was one of the places I had wanted to see ever since hearing that there was one in the ship. I  _love_ books. I dragged my finger along the hardcover spines of several science-y books, enjoying the  _click-click-click_ my fingernail made on the stiff spines. I poked around some bookshelves, but found nothing interesting. I went back out to the hallway and continued to the swimming pool, the kitchen, the wardrobe...

I eventually lost track of time (easy to do in the TARDIS), but I felt the floors and walls buzzing urgently, alerting me to the fact that the Doctor was apparently returning to the ship. I thanked her in my mind and ran back to the console room, finding the Doctor just entering the door. He looked up and I waved, feeling a bit silly at being out of breath, but ignored that and asked, "Did you get the list?"

"Yup," the Doctor replied, popping the "p" at the end. He looked a bit more subdued than usual, but I didn't ask why.

"Can I see it?" I asked, holding my hand out for the papers.

"Yeah, sure," the Doctor said distractedly, handing them to me while walking over to the console and fiddling with the controls and levers. I glanced at the top, saw the name "Roger Davey" and knew that that was where we had to go first. I remembered the Doctor going there to ask Mr. Davey some questions, then he had caught the signal of the newly born Adipose and just missed Donna. I knew that had to happen, so I suggested it to the Doctor.

He didn't answer, still looking down at the console with his brows furrowed. I repeated myself, louder this time, and he finally looked up. "Yes?" he asked.

"You're distracted by something. What is it?" I asked carefully, observing the Time Lord.

The Doctor's mouth opened in surprise, but he shrugged it off, apparently getting used to how easily I could read him. "Well, while I was out, I was just thinking... well, I was thinking that..."

"Go on," I prompted.

"Well, I was just wondering... do you still want to stay? Here, I mean. In the TARDIS. With me. 'Cause you seemed unwilling before, when I was going to get the list of clients, like you didn't - "

I decided to cut him off before he could get himself any more worked up over it. "Doctor," I started, and he finally shut up. "I  _do_ want to stay here. I just didn't want to risk being caught on camera while we were poking around for a client list."

"Oh. Well, that explains it, then," he answered awkwardly. Then the ever-present cheerful expression appeared on his face and he exclaimed, "What are we waiting for? Let's go interview the clients!"

I grinned. The Doctor could make practically anyone grin with his behaviour. "Okay! Let's start with this guy called Roger Davey."

The Doctor nodded and adjusted to controls so that we landed a few blocks away from the address given for Mr. Davy. When we did land, the Doctor and I scrambled out of the TARDIS and briskly walked to Mr. Davey's house. We were both silent, the Doctor probably going over what he would say to Mr. Davey when we got there and I was thinking ahead in the episode  _Partners In Crime_ in my head, attempting to check if I had overlooked anything that could get us in trouble later. If I remembered the episode correctly, and I was pretty sure that I did because I had watched this episode over and over because the Doctor and Donna were so hilarious, then the Doctor was going to show up at Roger Davey's house, interview him about his weight loss, figure out that the fat "just walked away" and out the cat flat every night, then chase the signal coming from the Adipose, barely missing Donna, trying to do the same thing after interviewing Stacy Campbell and finding her gone after she was converted to fat in her bathroom. I sighed, knowing that someone was going to die tonight, yet I could do nothing about it. It tore me up inside.

Finally, we arrived at the address and the Doctor rang the doorbell. "Leave this to me," he whispered, psychic paper already in hand.

The door opened and Mr. Davey looked at us, his eyebrows raised in silent question. "Mr. Roger Davey. We're calling on behalf of Adipose Industries," the Doctor said, showing his psychic paper to him. "We just need to ask you a few questions."

"Sure. Come right in," Mr. Davey replied, looking curious.

We walked in and he closed the door behind us. He gestured to the sitting room, but me and the Doctor stayed standing, so he sat down on a chair. "How long have you been on the pills?" the Doctor started while pacing.  _Way to get to the point, Doctor,_ I thought.

"I've been on the pills for two weeks now. I've lost fourteen kilos," Mr. Davey answered, seemingly proud.

"That's the same amount every day?" I asked, holding a pen and paper the Doctor had slipped me while we had been walking to the address so I could look more credible and professional.

Mr. Davy looked at me. "One kilo  _exactly,_ " he responded. "You wake up and it's disappeared overnight." The Doctor continued to pace. "Well, technically speaking, it's gone by ten past one in the morning."

This got the Doctor's attention. He looked at Mr. Davey and asked, "What makes you say that?" hands in pockets.

"That's when I get woken up. Might as well weigh myself at the same time."

"You wake up during the night often?" I asked, prompting him.

Mr. Davey nodded. "It is driving me mad." He leaned forward suddenly. "Ten minutes past one, every night, bang on the dot, without fail, the burglar alarm goes off."

The Doctor raised his eyebrow. "Could you show me?" he asked.

Mr. Davy nodded and led us outside to the burglar alarm above his front door. "I've had experts in, I've had it replaced, I've even phoned watchdog, but no, ten past one in the morning, off it goes."

"All with no burglar?" the Doctor confirmed.

"Nothing. I've even been up looking," came the reply.

I saw the Doctor suddenly get an idea. "Tell me Roger, have you got a cat flap?" he asked.

Mr. Davey turned towards him, puzzled. "A cat flap?"

"Yes. You know, a little door in the front door to let out the cat?"

"Well, in fact, I do," he said, going back inside. We followed and he closed the door again, then we all lied down on the floor as the Doctor inspected the cat flap with the sonic. "It was here when I bought the house. I never bothered with it really. I'm not a cat person," he continued.

"No, I've met cat people. You're nothing like them," the Doctor said softly, eyeing the cat flap suspiciously.

"Is that what it is though? Cats getting inside the house?" Mr. Davey asked.

"Well, the thing about the cat flaps is, they don't just let things in, they let things out as well."

"Like what?" I asked.

"The fat just walks away..." the Doctor trailed off forebodingly, letting the cat flap swing shut.

He jumped up and shook Mr. Davey's hand. "Well, thanks for the help. Tell you what, maybe you could lay off the pills for a week or so." Something beeped and he pulled out a weird device from his pocket, glowing different colours and obviously pointing in a specific direction. The signal tracker. "Gotta go! Sorry!" he said while running off. I turned, waved, and followed him. We turned left and continued to run down the street. I huffed and puffed to keep up with the Doctor. It wasn't fair! He had longer legs and was more used to running.

Finally, he stopped for a second, staring intensely at the tracker before turning right and continuing to run. I gasped for breath and followed. Then, the Doctor stopped and turned the tracker in a slow semicircle, having lost the signal for a moment. I took the time to catch my breath a bit, my hands on my knees. He shook it and banged it on the side of his head, before the signal resumed and he continued to sprint in the same direction. I sighed heavily and followed again, my body breaking out in sweat.

Apparently the Doctor noticed me tiring, because his pace slowed down as he followed the tracker's directions for finding the signal. He stopped again, turned the tracker in a slow semicircle, then shook it again beside his head before unknowingly following it after Donna. We made a turn and the Doctor came face to bumper with the black van that Ms. Foster sent out for the collection of the Adipose. It was coming right at him, so I quickly pulled him and myself out of the way. The Doctor glanced at me to check that I was alright, then stared as the tracker redid the directions for the signal, then pointed in the direction the van had just went. The Doctor's eyes widened in understanding and ran after the van. The van turned a corner and the Doctor turned right onto a parallel road for a shortcut, still following the signal.

We came to a stop a few yards from the end of the road, the Doctor staring grimly at the tracker. It seemed to have lost the signal. He looked around desperately, but there was nothing but the regular night sounds of the city. We had lost the van. I had to prevent myself from laughing hysterically, as the adrenaline rush faded from my system and knowing that the Most Important Woman In The Universe was just around the corner to our right. It would be so  _easy_ to reunite them, but I knew that Dalek Caan would do the work for me later, when he manipulated the timelines so that the Doctor and Donna met again at Adipose Industries while spying on Ms. Foster, so I kept quiet, my hands on my knees and trying to silence my heavy breathing so Donna wouldn't hear me accidentally from around the corner. At last, the Doctor gave up, muttered, "Come on. Back to the TARDIS," to me and left in the direction that we came. I stood and followed, only looking back once to see the flash of red hair as Donna went in the opposite direction from us as she fled the scene as well.


	5. Partners in Crime Part 2

We were both silent again on the way back to the TARDIS. I was mainly still catching my breath (there's my workout for the day!), but I was also thinking about the events of the night, for it was already dark. At last, we reached her doors and the Doctor strode in, taking the gold Adipose pill necklace from his pocket and hooking it into several differently coloured wires at the console. Suddenly, I felt the need to go the washroom, so I asked, "Doctor, where is the washroom in the TARDIS?"

"Should be around the right corner, third door on the left," he answered, pointing over his shoulder with his sonic screwdriver while fiddling with the necklace. I said my thanks and went. When I was done, I crept back up the hallway towards the console room. I could hear the Doctor talking to himself. "Fascinating. Seems to be a bio-flip digital stitch specifically for..." He trailed off and as I reached the doorway, I saw the Doctor with his back to me, but he was looking around the empty console room, seeming to realize that he was alone and just talking to himself.

"Doctor?" I asked uncertainly.

He jumped and turned to look at me. "Joyce! Sorry, got a bit distracted," he said.

I smiled, knowing that the Doctor had probably forgotten that I was even on the ship and that he had become lonely. "S'alright. What did you find out?"

"Well, the necklace seems to contain a..." he trailed off, looking for the right word that wasn't too complicated so that I would understand.

"A  _thing_ that collects and galvanizes human body fat into a small body?" I offered, remembering Ms. Foster's speech to Penny Carter when she showed the reporter one of the Adipose babies.

The Doctor's eyebrows raised almost to his hairline. "Have you seen this before?" he asked suspiciously.

"Do you mean that I've seen this episode before? Of course. This was one of my favourites," I replied with a wide grin.

"Why was it one of your favourites?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"Because you meet someone special again," I responded, sitting on the captain's seat.

"Who's the someone special?" he questioned, leaning forwards a bit in anticipation.

"I can't say, Doctor, and you know why. I know your past, present and future. If I were to tell you..." Here I stopped, but the Doctor nodded understandingly and apologized. "It's okay. I'd be damn curious too."

"Just wondering, though - how far back does the TV show go?"

"Oh, all the way back to when your first self and your granddaughter left Gallifrey for Earth in 1963. The TV show has been airing for more than fifty years since," I replied.

"Wow. So, was it popular then?" the Doctor asked with a quirky grin on his face.

My eyes widened. " _Very._ It had been translated into  _dozens_ of languages. Everyone had at least heard of the show and knew of the basic plot. If you were to show the face of one of the actors who played or is playing the part of you, they would almost definitely recognize you."

That made the Doctor quiet, and he ran a hand through his hair while leaning on the console, apparently deep in thought.

I decided to 'get the show on the road', as they say. I clapped my hands together and said, "So, what are we waiting for? Let's go back to Adipose Industries and camp out there for the day, then when everyone leaves work at 6:30, we'll sneak out and do some investigating."

The Doctor came to life and slammed some levers down, getting the TARDIS into flight. "I like the way you think! How  _do_ you come up with these ideas?" he asked.

"I shouldn't take the credit. Russell T. Davies wrote this episode," I responded, holding on tight to the captain's seat and trying not to fall off as the room started to shake.

"So you've been manipulating me this whole time so that the episode went as it should," the Doctor said as he turned around to look at me, the TARDIS stilling as we landed.

"Well, yes," I admitted. At the Doctor's unimpressed raised brow, I continued, "Don't look at me like that! I have to make sure that the timelines go the way they did in the TV show so that my presence in this universe doesn't disturb anything."

The Doctor's face gained an expression of contemplation. "True, true," he said, distracted, then he shot up and grabbed my arm, pulling me with him to the TARDIS doors. "Come on! You say we have to camp out in Adipose Industries all day, then let's go do that!"

I laughed at his enthusiasm and followed when he let go of my arm to lock his ship's doors. I looked over my shoulder at the bright blue car parked a little ways away and smiled at the thought of Donna Noble not being too far away, having just missed us. I was actually surprised when I watched the episode and saw that she didn't hear the sound of the TARDIS landing just a few yards behind her, but that's how the writers had wanted it, so that was how it was here.

We reached Adipose Industries and got in the same way as before, me giving the oblivious Doctor disapproving looks as I glanced around for any keen observers. I was surprised that we made it all the way to the basement without anyone stopping us. Finally, the Doctor found a suitable storeroom for hiding in for the day, with a few buckets and mops for cleaning. He and I slipped in and the Doctor soniced the lock, successfully locking us in. We both sat down with our backs leaning against the walls before the silence became awkward and the Doctor initiated conversation.

"So, what year was it when we left your universe, Joyce?" he asked me softly, turning his head away from the door he had been staring at for the past few minutes.

"It was 2015," I answered softly.

"Oh. Did they start the drilling yet?" the Doctor questioned. I knew what he was talking about, but he was wrong about his assumption. I remembered the episode "The Hungry Earth", where, in 2015, people drill into the Earth's crust farther than they've ever done so before. Of course, look how well that turned out for them, with the Silurians and all, but the Doctor didn't know that yet. Him, being a Time Lord, only knew of the basic event, since it must be included in human history in this universe. He must have assumed that it would be the same in my universe, but we hadn't done anything of the sort there. The Doctor kept forgetting that the show had been made in 2005 and only contained our predictions and hopes for the years to come.

"No. That event was just a prediction when that episode aired, Doctor. It hasn't happened yet and probably won't happen for a number of years to come," I replied after realizing that I had been silent for too long.

"Oh. Well, I thought it must've happened already. Sorry," he added.

"S'alright."

Silence reigned once again for a few minutes before it was  _me_ who became uncomfortable before the Doctor, which is strange, because I'm quiet by nature and the Time Lord next to me is, or at least  _this_ regeneration is, quite talkative and bouncy when he's not busy being the Oncoming Storm. "Doctor," I asked suddenly, because I had an idea.

"Yes, Joyce?"

"Do you actually speak English, or is the TARDIS just translating your Gallifreyan speech into English in my head?" I asked him, because during the show I had always wondered this.

"Of course I speak English! What, you think I'm 900 years old and only bothered to learn one language? Even though the other Time Lords considered it primitive, I learned most of Earth's languages when I was only 20 years old," the Doctor answered indignantly. He gave me a mildly offended look. "And anyways, the TARDIS doesn't translate Gallifreyan," he added as an afterthought.

"Sorry," I said, but continued,"it's just that that was a big debate on the Internet in my universe. People either thought that you used the TARDIS translation circuit to communicate with your companions or that you actually knew English."

"Really?" he confirmed.

"Yup. That, and what your name was," I said.

The Doctor's face went grave immediately. "Did the show reveal my name?" he asked, hands already twitching to reach up and remove the name from my brain should I confirm his suspicions.

I leaned away from him, just in case. I did  _not_ want the Doctor to mess with my memories. "No. If they ever revealed your name, the show might as well be over."

"Why's that?" the Doctor asked, head askance.

"Well, it's the biggest mystery of the show. Even the title. It  _was_ called, 'Doctor Who', after all," I replied.

The Doctor chuckled. "Quite a good title. That's what practically everyone asks when I tell them my name is the Doctor."

"Yeah. You chose the name 'Doctor' though, didn't you? It's like a title. Just like the Master, you chose the name like it was a promise, except that's where you and the Master are so different," I stated. The Doctor looked shocked and a little curious at my little speech, so I turned my body towards him and hastened to explain more. "When the Master chose his name, it signified that he wanted mastery over everything he believed to be inferior to him. He wanted to  _control_ things, especially people. But you, Doctor, your choice of name signifies who you are. Someone who wants to fix things, to make people happy and feel better. Someone who is never cruel nor cowardly, someone who never gives up."

"Who told you that? Did the show bare my thoughts and feelings as well?" the Doctor asked sarcastically.

I could tell that he was clearly displeased with my casual yet intuitive and accurate observations of who he was, and that he was deeply unsettled by how well I could read him. Who wouldn't be, if you were an ancient Time Lord, the last of your species (for  _now,_  anyway), who has been alone for so long, even with companions, not even sharing your own  _name_ with them, let alone your feelings and emotions?

"No one told me that, it just made sense. I used logic," I answered calmly.

The Doctor still looked discomfited, but he didn't say anything. I considered something for a while, then did it, since it felt like the right thing to do. "I'm sorry," I said abruptly.

The Doctor jumped a bit from his staring into middle distance with his chin in his hands and looked at me, surprise on his features. "What for?" he asked, bewildered.

"For being so blunt, I guess." I got up and paced the room as I said this, then continued, dragging my foot in the dust, "I can't help myself! I notice all these things about people, study their character, and when I...  _inform_ them of these observations, they think I'm weird or creepy." I bowed my head, embarrassed, because I'm usually never this open to other people. Granted, this was the  _Doctor,_ but still. It felt like I was baring my soul.

"And I don't agree with them," he said firmly, dragging me out of my reverie. I looked up, intrigued, and he continued. "I haven't known you for a while, Joyce, but I'm good at reading people, just like you, and I can already tell that you're an honest person. You're serious, yes, and you speak your mind, but what you say is usually what someone else needs to hear, for their own good."

I was touched. No one had ever bothered to reassure me like that. My friends liked me because of my sarcastic, dry humour and my intelligence, which they "borrowed" for homework and my mother just waved away my insecurity problems like they weren't even valid. "Thanks," I said finally, and I meant it.

"It's nothing. Come here and sit down again," he offered, patting the floor beside him. I acquiesced and, after a pause, the Doctor made a comment that was the start of an almost-one-thousand-year-old alien finally opening up to someone. "You're right about the name thing, you know."

I'm not ashamed to say that I was pleased by his confirmation. "Really?"

"Yup," he replied, popping the 'p'. He seemed to do that a lot. "Everyone always bothers me about that at first, when I tell them my name is 'just the Doctor'. They'll ask 'yes, but Doctor  _who?_ ' and it irritates me sometimes because I can't answer them." I stared at him and did the only thing I could think of; I patted his arm comfortingly. I'm bad at comforting other people; I believe that actions speak louder than words. Then the Doctor started again. "You know, all my companions, they're all brilliant, really... or  _were_ brilliant," he added quietly. "But none of them understood. They never even tried. They were some of the best people I've had the good fortune to meet in all of space and time, yet they just lacked that...  _spark_ of understanding. They saw, but they never noticed."

My eyes widened and I looked away, jaw clenched.  _Wow,_ that was some speech. Maybe the Doctor was being so open because he'd been alone for who knows how long after Martha, and here I come with all my shrewd observations about him - maybe he just wanted to let it out to someone who just  _understood._

I mentally and physically shook myself, clearing my head of these deep thoughts. If I let myself, I could get lost in them. "I'll try to understand," I promised. He looked at me then, really looked at me, and I put on the most heartfelt expression I could muster. One thing you should know about me is that if I make a promise to you, it's going to be kept, unless I die, am possessed or some such thing preventing me from keeping it. The Doctor smiled genuinely, the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkling, then clapped my knee and leaned back, exclaiming, "Alright! Enough of this sentimentality. Let's get to know more about each other."

I leaned back with him, letting him keep his dignity after our soul-baring conversation and not calling him out on the frankly obvious subject change. "Okay, an answer for an answer," I agreed, turning towards him once more. "You start."

"Hmm... do you have any brothers or sisters?" the Doctor asked.

Interesting question. "No. How many languages can you speak?"

"Five billion," he answered, almost smugly. In fact, I think he  _was_  being smug. I rolled my eyes. "Why is your hair so curly?"

That caught me off guard. What kind of question was _that?_  "Um, it's just naturally like that, I guess." I tossed my dark brown hair out of my eyes then. It's true, I have exceptionally curly hair (when I bother to wear it down, that is). "Can you communicate telepathically with the TARDIS?"

The Doctor's face closed off, and he replied with a question, suspicious. "Why?"

"Just answer the question, Doctor," I sighed.

He sighed too. "Fine. No, I can't. It's impossible. She may be a living being, but she's still a machine. However, I think she communicates well enough through the cloister bells, sparks and hums." He smirked fondly at that.

I smiled. The TARDIS would _always_  be there for the Doctor, of  _that_  you could be assured of. She had always been there for him, through every adventure, and she always will be.

"Ok, my turn," the Doctor started again, gaining my attention. "Exactly how  _much_ do you know about me?"

I opened my mouth, then closed it again. That was a  _big_ question. "Well," I began. "I don't know a lot about your adventures before you met Rose as your ninth self," the Doctor flinched at Rose's name, "but I've seen a good portion of what happened after that."

The Doctor swallowed. "So, you've seen my adventures with Rose and Martha?"

I ignored the fact that he was asking two questions in a row. I reasoned that this was a huge subject that would need to be discussed eventually, anyway, so why not talk about it when we had hours to waste away? "Yeah. I've seen all of your adventures up to the Earth's and your darkest day and blackest hour," I said, quoting the Twelfth Doctor's words from  _Dark Water._

The Doctor next to me shivered, and I considered for a moment that phrasing it like that sounded pretty bad. It sounded like he was going to  _die,_ for god's sake (well, we're all going to die eventually, but that's besides the point). "Sorry," I apologized.

"No, it's- it's fine," he said, waving a hand. He was looking away from me, but then he returned his gaze to my eyes and continued, "How will I know?"

"How will you know what?" I questioned, because I was honestly confused. Now what was he talking about?

"How... how will I know when my darkest day and blackest hour is coming?"

Oh. "Believe me, when it's coming, you'll know," I answered. It had to be pretty obvious. The Doctor would say it  _himself_  to Clara in the future, for Pete's sake!

The Doctor inhaled sharply, and I glanced at his face out of the corner of my eye. He was looking down now, seemingly upset. I could only imagine what he was assuming his "darkest day and blackest hour" would be. Probably something to do with the Daleks or the Cybermen. True, the Cybermen would have  _a lot_ to do with it, but they still wouldn't be the worst thing.

I checked my wristwatch, hoping that at least some time had passed. Only an hour and a half. Great. I needed a good way to wile away the time until we could exit this godforsaken closet and actually  _get some things done._

Then I had an idea.

Sleep! I could take a nap for a few hours, successfully getting out of any more deep conversations with the Doctor about who he was or his future or anything like that. I knew I had to avoid any discussions like that so that I didn't somehow change the Doctor's perception of himself, even in the tiniest way. It could have huge consequences, not to mention paradoxes, as the timelines would be diverted from their true path.

"Hey Doctor, I'm going to take a nap, okay?"

He grunted in assent, and I settled down in a mostly comfortable position and fell asleep. When I woke up, I didn't remember any of my dreams, but I found that I had slept for eight hours. Wow. _That was one_ hell _of a cat nap then,_  I chuckled to myself.

I turned my head and saw that the Doctor was still sitting in basically the same position as when I'd fallen asleep. He didn't look like he'd even noticed that I had awoken. He was just staring off into space. I cleared my throat, startling him, and announced, "Doctor, it's 6:30. All of the workers should be gone now. Let's go check out the building."

"Right! Finally! Let's get out of this dusty old closet, yeah?" the Time Lord grinned, jumping up and sonicing the door open. I got up more slowly, stiff from being in that cramped position for so long. How did the Doctor bounce around like that? He didn't even look like he'd  _moved_ while I was asleep.

We both exited the closet and set off for the stairs. The Doctor was headed for the roof, planning to get into a window cleaner's cradle and look into one of the windows from the outside. I didn't ask where we were going, and the Doctor glanced at me, unsure, as we continued on our way to the roof.

Finally, we arrived. You know, when you're actually experiencing it and not watching the scene on the TV, everything is suddenly more terrifying. Heights, for example. The Doctor ran over to the cradle and I drew the line. "Doctor, there is no way in  _hell_ that I am going in that thing."

"Come on, Joyce! It's perfectly safe! I've soniced it," he replied, holding up his sonic screwdriver.

I neglected to mention that sonicing it would do no good, as "Miss Foster" had a sonic pen, but still refused. "Nope. No way. Doctor, I'm scared of heights."

The Doctor looked sympathetic at once, but he still gestured to the cradle, which he had already gotten into. "It'll be fine. I'll be right here; you just don't have to look down." He looked reassuring, and in a fit of daring, I almost wanted to get in, but the part of my brain that stops one from killing themselves by being a stupid, risk-taking idiot halted me, and I shook my head adamantly. "Very well, then. Stay right there, I'll be back." And then he lowered the cradle.

I looked around for a hiding spot, knowing that the Doctor would come immediately back up, meet up with Donna and come here again, only to be nearly killed by Matron Cofelia and her stupid sonic pen. I figured that it would be best to just hide here for most of the "episode" while the Doctor and Donna got into the building again through a window and confront Matron Cofelia and her goons. I didn't fancy getting my eardrums burst by the Doctor when he soniced the sonic pen, creating a huge sonic feedback, nor did I want to risk falling to my death when Matron Cofelia cut the cable of the cradle.

I finally found a good spot, right around the corner from the doors that led to the stairs going down into the building. Suddenly, I giggled at the thought of the Doctor getting the shock of his life several floors down. Sure enough, the cradle hummed as it travelled upwards. The Doctor was coming back up.

"Joyce? Joyce! Where are you?" the Doctor called, panicked. I didn't answer him, only creeping further out of his sight. I heard him sigh, then the Doctor ran for the stairs, going to help Donna, probably figuring that she was the bigger priority at the moment. I smiled at the thought of their reunion in the stairwell before realizing that I shouldn't be present for when the Doctor shut down the inducer machine in the basement either, since the Doctor and Donna would be having a conversation about him travelling alone, Donna being bored with life on Earth and Donna possibly travelling with the Doctor as a full-time companion.  _That_ was a conversation that could become awkward with me there, fast.

I stiffened as I heard  _two_ sets thundering steps coming back up, then relaxed when I heard Donna's voice. "Because I thought, how do you find the Doctor? And then I just thought, look for trouble and then he'll turn up." The doors opened and I heard the Doctor and Donna burst out, Donna still talking while the Doctor looked around for me frantically. I was touched that I could induce such a panicked state from the Doctor when I went missing when he'd only just met me. "So, I looked everywhere. You name it. UFOs, sightings, crop circles, sea monsters. I looked, I found them all. Like that stuff about the bees disappearing, I thought, I bet he's connected. Because the thing is, Doctor, I believe it all now. You opened my eyes. All those amazing things out there, I believe them all. Well, apart from that replica of the Titanic flying over Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day. I mean, that's got to be a hoax. "  _My god, that woman can talk,_  I thought. She had hardly taken a breath while speaking.

I silently urged the Doctor to stop looking for me. Matron Cofelia and her goons were coming, and if he didn't hurry up, they would find him and Donna still on the roof. It seemed that Donna finally noticed that the Doctor was looking for something (or, in this case, some _one_ ), and she asked, "Doctor, what are you doing? What's wrong?"

"I... met someone, a girl, since you left the TARDIS. She's only been travelling with me for a short while; in fact, this is her first time out. She was supposed to wait for me here, but she's gone," the Doctor answered despondently, eyes travelling everywhere on the roof. I sank into the shadows even more.

Donna looked surprised for a second, then she said, in classic Donna fashion, "Well, smart girl, then, isn't she? Probably cleared off, knowing that there's danger 'round here. Now, Doctor," she began, and the Doctor finally looked at her. "What are we going to do?"

The Doctor perked up and sprinted for the cradle, Donna following him, bewildered. Then it seemed that something that Donna had said caught his attention (and mine, though only I knew of its true significance), and he asked, "What do you mean, the bees are disappearing?"

Donna answered him as he fiddled around with the cradle controls. "I don't know. That's what it says on the internet. Well, on the same site, there was all these conspiracy theories about Adipose Industries and I thought, let's take a look."

At last, the Doctor, finished with the controls and soniced them. "In you get!" he exclaimed, already in the cradle.

Donna, of course, immediately looked aghast. "What, in that thing?"

"Yes, in that thing!" the Doctor replied, impatient. I had to stifle a chuckle at their bickering.

Donna, smart woman she is, said, "But if we go down in that, they'll just call us back up again."

The Doctor beckoned Donna into the cradle, and as she got in, he answered, "No, no, no, because I've locked the controls with a sonic cage. I'm the only one that can control it. Not unless she's got a sonic device of her own, which is very unlikely." I mentally scoffed at that. Very unlikely, indeed.


	6. Partners in Crime Part 3

The cradle hummed as it travelled down the building, and I swallowed, hoping that I was right about hiding here on the roof. Sure, it was cowardly, but in the episode, the Doctor and Donna had barely survived in that cradle (Donna, in fact, hadn't even been  _in_ it; she had been dangling  _out_ of it), so I wasn't sure whether my presence there would've actually been a good thing. Suddenly, the doors to the stairs blasted open, "Miss Foster" stepping through elegantly, her two goons (I just loved calling them that!) at her side, brandishing guns. Then, she caught sight of the cradle humming as it went down, and she lowered her glasses, murmuring, "Oh. Oh, I don't think so."  _Creepy woman,_  I thought.

She walked towards the controls, held up her sonic pen and zapped them. I winced as the controls sparked, then the cable moved faster and faster. I heard a distant, yet startled yell from below, then the cable stopped moving altogether. I knew that the Doctor had stopped the cradle and both he and Donna were desperately trying to find a way into the building.

Matron Cofelia commanded into her wrist, "Deadlock the building," and I heard a click nearby, signifying the now completely locked building, even against certain sonic screwdrivers. Then, she aimed her sonic pen at one of the cables, burning it. It finally snapped and fell, eliciting a faint high-pitched scream from the cradle below. I cringed and hoped that Donna had caught the cable as it fell.

The stupid woman then announced, "And now, for the other one," and aimed her sonic pen at the remaining cable, about to snap it off too. All of a sudden, her pen sparked and fell out her hand. She yelped in pain as the sonic pen fell several floors down, hopefully to be caught by the Doctor to use to get into the building.

"Yes, he's slippery, that one. Time we found out who he is," Matron Cofelia said, clutching her hand and leading her goons over to the stairwell to confront the Doctor and Donna. When they had gone, I crept out, knowing that soon, the Doctor would stop one million people from becoming fat creatures (literally) and the nursery ship would arrive to collect the ten thousand Adipose that  _had_ been born as the Doctor and Donna watched from the roof.

Sure enough, several minutes later, I heard a loud groaning from the sky and looked up. The nursery ship was  _gigantic!_ You know those nights when you're looking up at the sky, with all its stars and planets and whatnot and it's all so much to take in that you lean back until you fall backwards? The ship was that huge. Just then, the Doctor and Donna rushed back up the stairs and ran across the roof to me.

"Joyce! Joyce, where were you? You had me worried sick!" the Doctor admonished. He lifted my arms and looked me over for any injuries. "What happened?" he asked.

"I hid around the corner from the stairwell to wait until you had shut down the inducer," I answered simply. The Doctor looked at me, surprised, and I continued, with a smirk, "Yes, I know that you used the Adipose pendants to switch off the transmitter so that fat goes back to being just fat."

"Who's this?" Donna asked, looking between me and the Doctor, confused.

"Oh! Donna, this is that girl I was telling you about. Donna Noble, meet Joyce Summers." The Doctor looked at Donna, then at me, then back at Donna, trying to observe our reactions to each other. Was he worrying that we wouldn't get along? Granted, Rose and Sarah Jane hadn't at first, but once they'd found some common ground, they had gotten along just fine.

I grinned, held out a hand and said, "Hi. Nice to meet you."

Donna smiled back and shook my hand. "Nice to meet you too." I desperately tried to contain the giddy feeling in my chest. I had just shaken hands with The Most Important Woman In The Universe.

"You've met the Doctor before, haven't you." I stated. It wasn't a question.

"How did you know that? Did he tell you that?" Donna asked me, glancing at the Doctor, uneasy.

I was about to reply, but the Doctor cut me off. "Right! Donna, I should probably explain about Joyce. You see, she knows-"

I cut him off with a hard step on his foot, and he yelped for a second before I said, "Donna, could you give us a moment?" and dragged him away, out of earshot.

"What was  _that_ for?" he asked me, indignant.

"You can't tell her that I know your past and future. You can't even tell her that I'm from a parallel universe," I whispered urgently.

"Why not?" the Doctor questioned. "Donna won't tell anyone, I promise."

"It's not that. Doctor, my knowledge of your timeline is  _extremely_ sensitive information. Imagine what would happen if one of your enemies heard that Donna knew and captured her to torture the information out of her."

It was like someone had flipped a switch. Instantaneously, the Doctor's face went from cheerful to very grave indeed. "Oh," he murmured, swallowing convulsively at whatever image my last sentence had elicited in his mind. "Okay then. But what do we tell her?"

I sighed. I had not planned this bit. "I don't know," I admitted. The Doctor nodded at that, but our furtive conversation was stopped short when Donna caught sight of Matron Cofelia floating up in one of the levitation beams to the nursery ship. "Doctor! I found that Matron woman!" Donna called to the Doctor.

The Doctor and I ran back, but the Time Lord had more urgency in his step than me, since I knew that the Matron would die anyway. Another life I couldn't save.  _I might as well make a list,_  I thought dryly.

"Matron Cofelia, listen to me!" the Doctor exclaimed, leaning towards the woman who was almost level with us in her levitation beam, if not a bit higher.

"Oh, I don't think so, Doctor. And if I never see you again, it'll be too soon," she answered, looking smug.

The Doctor looked incredibly frustrated. "Oh, why does no one ever listen," he muttered, glancing at me and Donna at his side. "I'm trying to help. Just get across to the roof. Can you shift the levitation beam?" He beckoned for the Matron to come towards us.

"What, so that you can arrest me?" she asked him incredulously.

I sighed and stared at the woman who was about to die. "Just listen," the Doctor continued, hoping to convince her. "I saw the Adiposian instructions. They know it's a crime, breeding on Earth. So what's the one thing they want to get rid of? Their accomplice."

"I'm far more than that. I'm nanny to all these children." She raised her head proudly and gestured to all the Adipose floating up to the ship, which was beginning to get full. The transportation was almost done.

"Exactly! Mum and Dad have got the kids now. They don't need the nanny anymore," the Doctor reasoned, but it was no use. The levitation beam holding Matron Cofelia turned off, and there was just enough time for her to gain a look of horror before falling to her death with a scream. The Doctor held Donna close to him so that she wouldn't have to see the Matron's remains as he stared sadly at the ground below. I looked away, shedding a tear for the dead woman. She may have been a criminal, by galactic standards, and a bit evil, but no one deserves death.

I heard an even louder groan from above, and we all looked up to see the Adipose babies waving at us as the nursery ship flew away. All three of us waved back, Donna saying, "I'm waving at  _fat._ " I chuckled at her remark.

The Doctor sighed before glancing around at the roof and saying, "Come on, let's get out of here before they have the military crawling all over this place."

I rolled my eyes at the Doctor's obvious distaste for the military and anything to do with it, something that would stay with him for his next two regenerations, at least, before following. Donna joined us as well. We walked all the way down the stairs and exited by a side door to arrive on Brook Street, where the Emergency Services had arrived at people were doing clean up of the aftermath of the invasion. Well, sort-of-invasion. The Adipose had only invaded to breed, but it was still wrong to use humans against their will as surrogate parents. I imagined that everyone who had taken the Adipose pills would've been  _very_ disturbed to know the real purpose of the most recent aliens to invade Earth.

The Doctor held up the sonic pen, looked at it, then tossed it into a nearby bin. I considered it for a second, then, when Penny Carter came up, still tied to the chair, I took advantage of the Doctor's and Donna's distraction and snuck a hand into the bin, pulled out the sonic pen and pocketed it. It could be useful later; you never know. Yeah, the Doctor would disapprove if he found out, but all I had to do was hide it from him and ask the TARDIS not to tell him.

At last, when Penny had moved away and Donna had said her piece, Donna remarked, "And some people can. So, then. TARDIS! Come on," and started to pull the Doctor to the alleyway.

I was about to follow, but then thought of something, and shouted, "Hey, Doctor? I'll be right back! I just have to do a thing!" before turning and going back the way we came.

I heard a faint, "What  _thing?_ " from the Doctor, but I didn't answer him. I checked around to make sure he couldn't see me, then I hid in a corner and waited for their awkward conversation about the difference between mates and mating to finish. Suddenly, I spied a head of blond hair with a blue jacket appear out of nowhere, though no one noticed with all the confusion after Adipose. Rose Tyler, for it was she, walked over to one of the 'do not cross' gates that Emergency Services has set up. She looked around before leaning on it, looking forlorn and sad.  _She's looking for the Doctor_ , I realized. This was when she strode across universes and times and places to find him and warn him of the stars going out.

Just then, Donna came running up to her. "Listen, there is this woman that's going to come along. A tall blond woman called Sylvia. Tell her that bin there, all right? It'll all make sense. That bin there," she said in a rush, pointing to a bin a few feet away. Then she turned around and ran back down a nearby alleyway, where I knew that the TARDIS resided for the moment, although Rose didn't know that. If she did, she'd probably be tearing over there as well.

I stepped up to Rose then, thinking over what I would say if I could speak to  _the_  Rose Tyler. And I was about to do so, so I'd better make it quick, because I had at best a few seconds before she decided to continue her search for the Doctor. "You're Rose Tyler, right?" I asked her, placing a hand on her arm as she turned away from the 'do not cross' barrier.

She froze and tugged her arm out of my grip before staring intently at me, asking me, "Who wants to know?"

"I'm Joyce. I'm a friend of the Doctor's."

Rose's face lit up. "Do you know where he is?" she questioned me urgently.

"I'm sorry, you just missed him," I lied. This was not the time nor the place for the two of them to meet, however much I wanted them to. "I used to travel with him. You're looking for him, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Rose answered, brushing a piece of stray blonde hair out of her eyes. She certainly looked older from when she had travelled with the Doctor. I wondered how many years had already passed in Pete's world for her. Well, apparently enough for her to witness the destruction the reality bomb would create if it was detonated. "How'd you know?"

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that if you keep looking for him, you'll find him. Just remember that," I said firmly.

"Okay..." Rose replied, looking unsure. But then she brightened and said, "Thanks."

"No problem."

She turned to go, but then she stopped short and asked me over her shoulder, "Do you even know why I'm looking for the Doctor?"

I only needed to say two words. "Bad Wolf."

Her eyes widened, but she nodded curtly at me and remarked, "Yeah. It's coming. The stars are going out."

"I know," I answered. I looked around at realized that if I didn't get back to the TARDIS soon, the Doctor would come looking for me, probably finding Rose as well. Not good. "Listen, I have to go. But you have to remember to never give up and never give in. I'll hopefully see you later, when you find him."

Rose smiled at me gratefully, then said, "Goodbye, then."

"Never goodbye, only see you soon," I responded, a quirked smile on my lips. I waved at Rose one more time before turning and running towards the alleyway. When I arrived at the mouth of the alley, I turned back in time to Rose's form fade away from existence, at least in this time and place. I shook my head to clear it and continued to the TARDIS, hoping that I had just given Rose enough hope and determination to continue searching for the Doctor, for travelling from parallel to parallel to find one man in all of creation had to be difficult.

I knocked on the TARDIS doors and they opened by themselves to reveal the Doctor and Donna at the console, Donna's things sitting on the floor nearby. "Where were you?" the Doctor asked, glancing at me as he closed the doors with a switch. "I was about to go looking."

I sighed in relied, knowing that I'd made it back in time. "Just taking care of something, Doctor," I replied easily.

He eyed me for a moment before saying, "Oh! Nearly forgot! Donna's going to be travelling with us, that okay?" The Doctor watched me for a reaction this bit of news, like he expected me to protest or get jealous. Oh, please. If anything, I was happy that the episode had gone as it should have.

"That's great! Welcome aboard, Donna." I smiled my most warm smile at her, and she smiled back.

The Doctor grinned foolishly to himself as he watched our mutual acceptance, then put his back to the console and asked us both, "So, whole wide universe, where do you two want to go?"

"I think Donna should choose this destination," I remarked, looking at her teasingly. I knew  _exactly_  where she was thinking of.

"Really?" the Doctor asked, looking at me for confirmation.

"Yeah," I answered. "It's her first time on it willingly, isn't it?"

Both of their faces showed surprise; well, the Doctor was surprised, Donna seemed to be leaning more towards shock. "How do you know that?"

I shut my stupid mouth and looked over at the Doctor, who caught my hint and stepped in. "I told her about the whole mess with your... wedding and all," he said, stumbling over his words a bit towards the end of his sentence. That incident must have affected him more than I had realized.

"Oh. Well, as for going somewhere, I know exactly the place." She smiled softly.

The Doctor moved to the controls, hands poised to take her anywhere in all of time and space. "Which is?" he asked, brows raised expectantly.

She tilted her head to the left and replied, "Two and a half miles that way."

The Doctor looked puzzled, but did her bidding and the TARDIS shook a bit as we travelled. "Why there?"

"My grandad. He's always believed in aliens, and I want to say goodbye to him before we leave," Donna said with a fond smile.

"Okay then," the Doctor said before waving her towards the doors. "Careful, we're floating in the sky about a thousand miles up," he warned.

She didn't say anything, just opened the doors and nearly waved her hand off. Even the Doctor and me waved to the very excited man below us, looking at us through his telescope. Then, Donna turned away from the doors as the Doctor closed them and flipped a few levers and switches that sent us hurtling towards the stars above.


	7. Chapter 7

"So!" the Doctor exclaimed as we left the Earth behind. "We need to get those bags unpacked somewhere. I've put the TARDIS into the Time Vortex for now, so I'll go help you create a room. The TARDIS can be a bit cold to newcomers sometimes," he grinned. "Plus, Joyce needs a room created too."

"What? I already have a room," I stated, puzzled.

Now the Doctor looked confused. "But you've barely been on the TARDIS for a few hours. How did she connect with you that quickly?"

"I don't know," I admitted, though I kind of did. The TARDIS probably knew that I had knowledge of the Doctor's timeline and maybe she thought that I could help the Doctor. I didn't really know for sure.

"Well, at least she's made friends with you already," the Doctor continued, before perking up and exclaiming, "Right!" rubbing his hands together and lifting all of Donna's bags at once, though quite a few of them fell rather quickly. He walked off with them, going deeper into the TARDIS, so me and Donna both sighed, shared a smile, picked up the remaining bags and followed him.

On our way there, Donna asked me something. "Hey, if you've only been on the TARDIS for a few hours, how come you've got no luggage? Or did you already unpack?"

The question was innocent enough, but unfortunately treading on dangerous ground. I grimaced and lied again. "Oh, it was a spur of the moment decision to travel with the Doctor, so I didn't bring any luggage."

But of course, Donna saw through that too. "But this is a time machine! Surely you can just go back and pick up a few things, yeah?"

"I can't go back home, Donna." For once, in what was to be a long streak of lies to future other companions to the Doctor, I was (in this case, unfortunately) telling the truth.

"Wh-" Donna started to ask, but we'd arrived at her new bedroom door, and she got distracted. I had to suppress a sigh of relief. We all put Donna's bags down, then the Doctor got to work with his sonic and a mostly one-sided conversation with the TARDIS. Finally, a room with a neutral colour theme, like beiges, browns and whites, and a fancy ensuite was created. Me and the Doctor left Donna cooing over her new luxury bath tub, chuckling to ourselves.

I followed the Doctor back to the console room, only for him to turn around as soon as he had reached the console, lean against it and cross his arms. "Okay, explain more about what just went on," he began. "You kept disappearing. First on the roof, then when I was talking with Donna about travelling with me. Where did you go  _really_?"

Damn the Doctor and his over-analysing mind. "I already told you, I was hiding until you turned off the inducer and later I had to check something out."

The Doctor paused, then said, "Okay, the hiding part I can kind of understand. But what does 'check something out mean'?"

I couldn't tell him that I had spoken to Rose, so I replied with the only thing I could come up with. "Spoilers."

His eyebrows raised in a clear expression of disbelief. " _Spoilers?_ "

"Yes. Don't ask me again," I huffed.

"Fine. Fair enough," the Doctor admitted with his hands up. Then he put them down and in his pockets. "Was the someone special you were talking about earlier Donna?"

Now we were getting somewhere. "Yes," I answered with a smirk.

"I was so shocked when I saw her again, peaking through that door," the Doctor went on. "How come I met her again? Out of everyone in the universe, I met Donna Noble again." He ran a hand through his hair and stared at the console, thinking hard.

"Spoilers," I said again.

He looked at me again, really looked at me, and with a furrow of his forehead, said, "You know, don't you." It wasn't a question. "You know all these things, the reasons behind them. I can see it in your face."

"Yes, I do. But Doctor, you must promise me to  _never_ ask about them, okay? You know I can't tell you. The universe is delicate enough as it is with me in it."

The Doctor simply nodded. I was about to leave to go back to my room, but then he added, "How's your room?"

Interesting question. "It's fine. Great, actually. The TARDIS made a carbon copy of my old bedroom at home."

"Oh. She did?" He looked pretty surprised.

"Yeah. Goodnight, Doctor." And with that, I left him there, sitting on the captain's seat.

* * *

I walked through the TARDIS corridors, reflecting on today's events. Was there anything I had missed? I knew already of the connection between the bees disappearing and Adipose 3 being lost. I knew why and how the Doctor and Donna had met each other for a second time. I knew that Rose was going to skip through the Doctor's timeline, trying to find him and tell him that the stars are going out. Was there anything else of importance, maybe something that would help in a later episode?

Well, there was Matron Cofelia's sonic pen. As I arrived in my room, I shut the door and took it out of my pocket, examining it. It was black, and yes,  _sleek,_ as the Doctor had put it. The sonic end was sort of hidden at one end under some metal adornment, while the other end was a writing tool. It could come in handy. I felt around in my side table and found the same hidden alcove from my old bedroom where I used to hide my things that I hadn't wanted my mother to find. I placed the pen there, where it would soon be joined by many more objects I would collect on my adventures with the Doctor.

Suddenly, something wet slid down between my legs, and I jumped off my bed in surprise. There was a red stain where I had sat, and I looked between my legs for confirmation. Yup, that time of the month again. I'd have to keep a physical calendar in my room to keep track of the days, since telling time in the TARDIS would be hard. I stumbled out of my room to find a perfect replica of my old bathroom across the hall, the door open and a couple of pads already on the counter.

 _Thank you, TARDIS,_ I thought gratefully, then made for the bathroom. I made it and closed and locked the door behind me, instructing the TARDIS not to let anyone in. I was almost done when I heard running feet and the Doctor, of all people (though there were only two other people on the TARDIS) knocked on my door, fast and hard. What now?

"Joyce! Joyce, are you alright? I can smell blood! Are you injured?"

Oh, for god's sake...

I finished, washed my hands (accompanied by the noise of the Doctor frantically trying to open the door with his sonic) and finally opened the door. The Doctor, in all his mussed-hair and wrinkled-suit glory, stood there, sonic screwdriver raised and sweeping around, like a gun, and looking for intruders. "Doctor, put that down," I said, pushing his arm with the screwdriver down as I said so. "It's not a gun. What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?" I smirked at my quote of the War Doctor's.

The Doctor in front of me immediately looked me over for injuries, remarking, "I was in the console when I turned the heating on (Donna said it was too cold in here), and I guess the air was circulating more, and I could smell human blood. Then, I tracked the smell here. Now, Joyce, if you're injured, you need to come to me. I can help you clean and dress it."

I rolled my eyes. "Doctor, if I was really injured (which I'm not, by the way), don't you think you would've smelled it when I returned to the TARDIS?" I mean, honestly. It seemed the Doctor tended not to think clearly when he was worried about his companions.

That stopped him in his tracks. "Oh. Well, why can I smell blood then?"

I sighed.  _Here we go._ "I'm on my period, Doctor."

He raised a brow sceptically, looking confused. "Period of what?"

I refrained from responding, 'My period of bleeding out between my goddamn legs each month,' and tried a more scientific term. "It's also called a menstrual cycle."

 _Now_ the Doctor understood. "Oh! Your menstrual cycle! That's when-"

We were  _not_ going there. "Yeah, I know. Now, if you'll excuse me, Doctor, I'd like to go to bed."

"Right. Okay. Well... goodnight, Joyce." He smiled at me and pocketed his screwdriver. I smiled back and he turned and left. I waited until he was out of sight and hopefully out of earshot before sinking to the floor with a groan. I  _hate_ period cramps. I finally got up and found two ibuprofen tablets on my side table.  _Thanks again, TARDIS_ , I thought, and felt the floor beneath my feet hum in response. I took them with a glass of water that appeared next to them as soon as I picked them up, then, at last, I crawled into bed, still fully clothed, and fell into a deep sleep after one of the longest days of my life.


	8. The Fires of Pompeii Part 1

I awoke to the sound of someone knocking on my door in the manner of the Eleventh Doctor when he found Clara again (this time, the original one). "Joyce! Time to get up! Well, not  _time,_ exactly. We  _are_  in a time machine. Anyways, c'mon! You've been asleep for  _hours!_ " I swear to god, the last Time Lord in existence (for now) was  _whining._ I heard him mutter something about crazy humans and their need to sleep half their lives away, only to be interrupted by an "Oi!" from Donna down the hall, who had apparently heard him. I chuckled as I changed into clothes (did I mention that the TARDIS had copied my old wardrobe as well?) that would be good for running in, yet not be too hot. If I wasn't mistaken (and I almost never am), we were going to Pompeii in 79 AD soon. There would be, as there always was, a lot of running, plus it would be very hot, what with Vesuvius erupting and all.

I stopped at that thought and sat down abruptly. An entire city of people would die horrible deaths, and I couldn't change that. The only thing I  _could_ do, was help Donna convince the Doctor to save anyone, just one family, from Pompeii, and then comfort the both of them in the aftermath, because I knew that this episode had really upset them.

I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders and mentally prepared myself to face the day. As an afterthought, I grabbed what I was beginning to think of as  _my_ sonic pen, pocketed it, snuck to the bathroom, did my business and opened the door to find the Doctor attempting (keyword being  _attempting_ ) to wake up Donna a short distance away. Huh. I didn't know that her bedroom was that close to mine.

"Alright! I'm up, I'm up!" she finally squawked, and a hand clad in a purple pyjama shirt waved the Doctor away from her door, then slammed it in his face. I laughed as I made my way to the Doctor, who looked almost comically wounded.

He brightened up when he saw me, though. "Joyce! 'Bout time you got up! You've been sleeping for nine hours!"

"Yeah, I was, Doctor, because that's the amount of sleep us  _crazy humans_ need." I smiled a quirky grin at his face when he realized that I'd heard his little  _comment_. "Anyways, what are we doing today?"

"Well, I was planning on letting you two choose," he replied, leading the way to the console room. We arrived and he started to prepare the TARDIS for a destination, leaving only the space-time coordinates untouched until either me or Donna came up with a place and time we wanted to go to. I took careful note of which controls the Doctor used and how to use them. You never know when it could come in handy to know how to fly a TARDIS.

"Oh! I know where I want to go!" Donna exclaimed as she joined us. "That is, if Joyce agrees with me." She said this last bit with a hesitant glance in my direction.

"As long as it's ancient Rome, I agree."

Donna gasped. "How did you know?"

I placed my index fingers on my temples and said mockingly, "I can read minds."

The Doctor just shook his head at me and typed in some coordinates, which I knew would be Rome, Italy, August 23, 79 AD, but we would actually arrive in Pompeii on the same date. I was watching him type the coordinates in, analyzing their format, when the Doctor nudged me discreetly and muttered, "So, I can safely assume that you've seen this before?"

I glanced at Donna to make sure that she hadn't heard, which she hadn't (she was busy examining the console room more carefully, since she hadn't had a lot of time to do so during her previous adventures with the Doctor), and replied, "Yeah. For the record, I'm so sorry, Doctor."

This seemed to immediately send alarm bells off in the Doctor's head. He let go of the keyboard and touched my face, wiping something away. "You're crying,"' he said softly. "Why?"

I touched my cheek as well and felt the tears that I had been shedding almost without realizing that I was doing so. "I'm just thinking about the events that are about to happen," I answered, telling the truth instead of lying or being purposely obscure.

"Hey. Look at me," the Doctor interrupted my wayward thoughts, which were starting to flash with the desperate and panicked expressions on the faces of the people of Pompeii when the volcano erupted. I did and he continued, "Everything will be alright. I'll make sure of it."

I considered this, then gave the Doctor a word of advice, just in case I died or something on this adventure. "Save someone, Doctor. Anyone."

He looked very confused at this, and opened his mouth to ask me something (probably 'where the hell did  _that_ come from?'), but Donna jumped into our conversation and remarked cheerfully, "C'mon, you two glum faces! What's the matter? Let's go to ancient Rome already!"

I turned away quickly and brushed the tears off of my face before Donna could see and ask questions while the Doctor grinned at Donna to show that he was fine while talking a mile a minute about ancient Rome. When I was sure that I looked normal, I turned around, only to stumble as the TARDIS went into flight. I grabbed a bar placed for that specific reason around the console until we landed.

The Doctor was still grinning as he stepped out of the TARDIS and pushed aside a curtain to reveal the streets of Pompeii. Donna was right behind him, and me behind her. "Ancient Rome. Well, not for them, obviously. To all intents and purposes, right now, this is brand new Rome."

We started walking away from the TARDIS, which was parked in an out-of-the-way alcove, and further into the city. Donna looked happier than I had ever seen her in this universe. "Oh my God. It's so... roman! This is fantastic!" She hugged the Doctor as a 'thank you' for taking her here, to which he laughed fondly.

We kept walking, Donna getting more and more excited while the Doctor wouldn't stop grinning happily at her. "I'm here, in Rome. Donna Noble in Rome. This is just weird. I mean, everyone here's dead."

I chuckled just as the Doctor said, "Well, don't tell them that."

Then Donna spotted a sign that read 'TWO AMPHORAS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE' and remarked indignantly, "Hold on a minute. That sign over there's in English. Are you having me on? Are we in Epcot?" I laughed at that one.

The Doctor hastened to answer. "No, no, no, no. That's the TARDIS translation circuits. Just makes it look like English. Speech as well. You're speaking Latin right now."

Donna looked incredulous. "Seriously?" The Doctor made a noise of assent and she continued, somewhat shell-shocked, "I just said seriously in Latin."

"Oh, yeah," I jumped in.

Donna perked up then and asked, "What if I said something in actual Latin, like veni, vidi, vici?* My dad said that when he came back from football. If I said veni, vidi, vici to that lot, what would it sound like?" By now were almost to the stall where Donna would speak (apparently) in Celtic.

The Doctor looked at me, amused, then answered, "I'm not sure. You have to think of the difficult questions, don't you?"

"I'm going to try it," Donna said, looking positively thrilled. She strode over to a nearby stall selling fruit.

"Afternoon, sweetheart. What can I get you, my love?" the man at the stall asked her.

Donna paused, then replied, "Er, veni, vidi, vici."

The man looked confused, before saying slowly, "Huh? Sorry? Me no speak Celtic. No can do, missy."

Donna just said, "Yeah," and moved back to me and the Doctor.

"How's he mean, Celtic?" she questioned.

"Welsh. You sound Welsh," I responded.

"There we are. Learnt something," the Doctor remarked, leading us again deeper into Pompeii. I paused and looked behind us, catching the eye of the Sibylline soothsayer following us. She froze, watching me with panicked eyes and probably thinking that I would tell the Doctor and Donna about her presence. But I simply nodded at her and turned to follow my companions.

"Don't our clothes look a bit odd?" Donna asked, glancing around at the other civilians wearing togas and robes befitting of ancient Italy, then at our clothes, which looked decidedly to be of the early twenty-first century Western style.

"Nah. Ancient Rome, anything goes," I replied.

"Like Soho, but bigger," was the Doctor's input. He stared at me for a second when he'd finished his sentence, then murmured, quiet enough that only I would hear him, "You knew what I was going to say."

I nodded at him, then jerked my head towards the direction I remembered them going in the episode and said, "C'mon. Let's go this way."

Both of them followed me, the Doctor with a look of slight trepidation and unease (he was thinking that the famous Roman landmarks should be looming by now) and Donna still with that excited and thrilled expression on her countenance.

"You've been here before then?" I heard Donna ask the Time Lord from behind me.

"Mmm. Ages ago. Before you ask, that fire had nothing to do with me. Well, a little bit. But I haven't got the chance to look around properly. Coliseum, Pantheon, Circus Maximus. You'd expect them to be looming by now," he remarked. We walked through an entryway and he said, "Try this way," before taking the lead this time towards where I knew we would get a clear view of Mount Vesuvius.

We arrived in the plaza and Donna declared, "Not an expert, but there's seven hills of Rome, aren't there? How come they've only got one?"

The ground started to shake as the 'mountain' made a tiny eruption, which prompted a man in the street to say, "Here we go again," and everyone else to quickly grab for falling pottery and goods.

I watched as realization dawned on Donna's face as she said, "Wait a minute. One mountain, with smoke. Which makes this-"

The Doctor cut her off and finished her horrified sentence. "-Pompeii. We're in Pompeii. And it's volcano day."

* * *

  **Latin translations:**

***I came, I saw, I conquered**


	9. The Fires of Pompeii Part 2

As soon as the rumbling stopped and everyone had gained their footing again, the Doctor rose out of his crouch on the ground, pulling Donna with him, and stared at me profoundly.

Feeling stupid, like he was trying to give me an obvious message, I asked, "What?"

The Doctor glanced at Donna, who was too busy staring at Vesuvius with her mouth open to hear us, then replied in a hiss, " _You let me travel to Pompeii the day before the volcano erupts."_ It wasn't a question. It wasn't even said nicely. In fact, I think the Doctor was pretty pissed.

"You had to!" I said, on the defensive with the way he was glaring at me like that.

"Damn you and your "had to's" sometimes, Joyce," he muttered while dragging poor Donna away and down the street. I stood where I was, too shocked to move. What had I done now? The Doctor acted like I had led him and Donna to their deaths, for god's sake! Okay,  _granted,_ it must seem like it to them now, but I knew for a fact how the original timelines went. I just had to make sure that they went down their proper paths.

Suddenly, I noticed that I couldn't see the Doctor nor Donna anymore. Shit! Had he actually left me behind? I ran down the streets I had seen him go in the episode, but he was nowhere to be found. Neither was the TARDIS. I swear, if he left me in Pompeii the day before Vesuvius erupted, I'll...

Then, I remembered that the TARDIS had gone missing in the episode and the Doctor and Donna had gone to Caecilius' house to get it back. I turned to a nearby vendor of pottery and asked, out of breath, "Excuse me, do you know the way to Caecilius' place?"

The vendor smiled and pointed around the corner, saying, "Go around the corner and take your first left. It's on Foss Street. A big villa, can't miss it."

I was already leaving, but I yelled over my shoulder, "Thanks!"

The last I heard of him before merging with the crowds around the corner was "No problem, miss!"

I fought my way through the mass of people, saying, "Excuse me!" when I needed to get through and "Sorry!" when people didn't move and I had to shove them away to get through. I finally made it to Foss Street and ran until I saw a big, fancy-looking stone house, or  _villa,_ as the Italians of this era called it. I spun on the spot, looking hopefully for the Doctor and/or Donna.

What did I do now, ring the bell? Knock? And what should I say when - or  _if_  - someone opened the door? "Hello, I'm looking for two friends of mine who I'm travelling in all of time and space with and who one of them is angry enough with me to abandon me. We're looking for our space ship/time machine/living sentient organism that apparently you have in your villa. May we have it back, please?" Yeah, I don't think so.

I sighed, wringing my hands.  _What am I going to do now?_ I thought desperately. I could leave Pompeii for the surrounding countryside before tomorrow, sure, but then I'd still be stuck in Italy in 79 AD. All of a sudden, I heard a pair of familiar voices and I glanced to my right, down the street. At the end of it, the Doctor was looking around frantically, muttering to himself, while Donna was calling something... "Joyce? Joyce!"

Oh! So  _now_ they're looking for me, eh? I was sorely tempted to hide and watch them panic more, but I figured that they had suffered enough, given the expressions on their faces. Plus, we needed to get this episode going. As I made my way to them, I was a bit pleased to discover that this meant that the Doctor hadn't meant to abandon me in a city about to burn, but he had only forgotten me. Actually, now that I thought about it, that wasn't that much better. How do you  _forget_ a whole person?

At last, I arrived in front of them, and the funny thing was that at first, neither of them noticed me. But then the Doctor caught sight of me and ran right at me, sweeping me into a crushing hug. "JOYCE! Oh my god, we found you! DONNA! I found her! You can stop yelling now! Oh, Joyce, where were you? I was running back to the TARDIS with Donna and I thought you were right beside me, but then after Donna said her piece about warning the villagers, I noticed that you were really quiet, then I couldn't find you..." here he trailed off, apparently too spent to continue.

I stayed still for a second, then fought my way out of his hug. The Doctor released me, looking confused, and I spied Donna goggling at me out of the corner of my eye. I, very calmly, looked the Doctor in the eyes, then  _slapped_ him, hard, across the face. The Doctor held a hand to his now red cheek and gaped at me, shocked. I heard Donna mutter dazedly, "Well, you go girl."

I marched back up to the Doctor and crossed my arms, looking up at him. " _Never do that to me again. Are we clear?_ " I hissed, probably looking purely livid. And oh, how I was. The Doctor nodded hurriedly, his eyes wide.

I smirked in satisfaction and said more clearly, "I thought so." Then, I turned and started walking to Caecilius' villa, saying over my shoulder, "Come on. Let's go get the TARDIS from Caecilius."

Needless to say, neither the Doctor nor Donna dared to ask how I knew this while I'd been separated from them.

* * *

This time around, the Doctor knocked on the front door and showed the servant who answered it his psychic paper, saying that we were marble inspectors. As we were shown inside, I thought hard to come up with a good Roman name to introduce myself as. Finally, I came up with Tanaquil.

Just as we arrived in the what I would call 'living room', however, the ground started to shake again and I immediately clung to the wall. The Doctor, on the other hand, rushed to catch a falling marble bust before it could smash on the floor. "Woah! There you go!" he said as he caught it in time and placed it back in its proper place as the earth stilled.

Caecilius spoke up. "Thank you, kind sir. I'm afraid business is closed today. I'm expecting a visitor."

The Doctor just grinned and shook Caecilius' hand. "But that's me, I'm a visitor. Hello."

Caecilius looked confused. "Who are you?" he asked as the Doctor walked away and turned to face him, me and Donna following.

The Doctor, clearly thinking on the spot, introduced himself as 'Spartacus', Donna following his lead. I rolled my eyes and said, "I'm Tanaquil." I saw the Doctor glance at me out of the corner of my eye but I remained steadfastly staring at Caecilius.

"Mr and Mrs. Spartacus and daughter," Caecilius deduced, eyeing all three of us. Donna and the Doctor immediately looked aghast as I giggled a bit and wondered if I really looked like the offspring of Donna and the Doctor. Maybe Caecilius needed glasses?

"Oh, no, no, no. We're not, we're not married," the Doctor amended, gesturing between the two of them.

"We're not together," Donna put in.

I was miffed that both of them neglected to mention that I was  _not_ their daughter and piped up, "And I'm not their daughter, by the way."

Of course, Caecilius decided that they must be related in  _another_ way. "Oh, then brother and sister? Yes, of course. You look very much alike."

The Doctor and Donna looked at each other and simultaneously asked, "Really?" and I had to suppress the urge to guffaw very loudly.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not open for trade," Caecilius stated, trying to get rid of us before Lucius Dextrus arrived.

The Doctor looked around and raised an eyebrow. "And that trade would be...?"

"Marble. Lopus Caecilius. Mining, polishing and designing thereof. If you want marble, I'm your man," Caecilius introduced himself.

"That's good. That's good, because I'm the marble inspector." The Doctor flashed his psychic paper at Caecilius and walked away, leaving the poor man to start panicking.

Caecilius' wife, Metella, who had remained silent during the whole conversation, said, "By the gods of commerce, an inspection." She grabbed her son's, Quintus, goblet and poured the wine out. "I'm sorry, sir. I do apologize for my son." I couldn't help but giggle at Quintus' cry of indignation.

Caecilius rushed to be more polite and welcoming. "And this is my good wife, Metella. I must confess, we're not prepared for an inspection."

The Doctor was all easy-going reassuring comments and smooth manipulation. "Nothing to worry about it. I'm, I'm sure you have nothing to hide. Although, frankly, that object looks rather like wood to me." Here, the Doctor pointed to the TARDIS, which was sitting in the corner, and headed over to it. Donna and I followed. Why were we always following him around?

Metella hissed to her husband worriedly, "I told you to get rid of it."

"I only bought it today," Caecilius said defensively.

"Ah, well. Caveat emptor."*

"Oh, you're Celtic. There's lovely." Oh yeah, Latin sounds like Celtic. Right.

"I'm sure it's fine, but I might have to take it off your hands for a proper inspection."

But of course, Donna had to try her hand again. "Although while we're here, wouldn't you recommend a holiday, Spartacus?" She said innocently enough, but the loaded look she gave the Doctor definitely wasn't.

"Dont' know what you mean, Spartacus." The Doctor's voice held a tone of warning in it.  _Lay off it, Donna._

Donna continued to explain, seemingly oblivious to the Doctor's narrowed eyes. "Oh, this lovely family. Mother and father and son." She gestured to Metella, Caecilius and Quintus, who were looking on with bewildered expressions. "Don't you think they should get out of town?"

"Why should we do that?" Caecilius finally asked.

Donna looked incredulous. "Well, the volcano, for starters."

"What?" he demanded, looking more confused. I would too, if someone was talking to me about something I'd never heard about in my life.

"Volcano," Donna repeated. I sighed, exasperated.

"What ano?"

"That great big volcano right on your doorstep!" Donna shot back, getting more and more frustrated.

The Doctor finally stepped in and nipped this sorry little affair in the bud before it got out of hand. "Oh, Spartacus, for shame. We haven't even greeted the household gods yet. Come, Tanaquil." He steered Donna away and gestured to me with his head to follow.

As soon as we were out of earshot, the Doctor took some water and flicked it on each drawing of a household god, explaining as he did so, "They don't know what it is. Vesuvius is just a mountain to them. The top hasn't blown off yet. The Romans haven't even got a word for volcano. Not until tomorrow."

"Oh, great, they can learn a new word as they die," Donna replied, looking very much not impressed.

"Donna, stop it." I warned her. Her futile attempts at saving the city were making the whole thing even sadder.

"Listen, I don't know what sort of kids you've been flying round with in outer space, but you're not telling me to shut up." I raised my eyebrows at her pure nerve. But she wasn't done. "That boy, how old is he, sixteen? He must be Joyce's age, for god's sake! And tomorrow he burns to death."

I saw the Doctor's jaw clench as he glanced between me and Quintus. Donna had hit a sensitive spot, it seemed. But he refused to give up. "And that's my fault?" he asked indignantly.

Donna looked even more pissed off. "Right now, yes," she replied, staring him down. I was about to get in between the two and separate them if need be, but we were all interrupted.

"Annoucing Lucius Petrus Dextrus, Chief Augur of the City Government," said a man who had just walked in.

He stepped aside and a man with grey-white hair and a foul expression wearing a cloak over his right arm walked in like he owned the place. I immediately could tell that I wouldn't like him, even before he had said a word. I remembered from the original episode that this man was a sexist and arrogant to boot.

Caecilius stepped forward, intending on being a welcoming and gracious host. "Lucius. My pleasure, as always."

Across the room, Metella briskly told Quintus to stand up and he begrudgingly did so. Caecilius continued in his mission to get a reaction out of Lucius, who was just standing there, staring around the room. "A rare and great honour, sir, for you to come to my house." He tried to shake Lucius' hand, but the rude man blatantly ignored his offered hand and Caecilius retracted his hand, looking embarrassed.

Finally, the dour man spoke. "The birds are flying north, and the wind is in the west." Hey, I never said that what he said made a lick of sense in context. I glimpsed the Doctor's expression at Lucius' statement and had to physically cover my mouth to prevent myself from laughing out loud. In fact, I ended up making a weird coughing noise in my throat and Donna winked at me, knowing that I was trying not to laugh. I smiled back and returned my attention to the conversation we were watching unfold.

"Quite. Absolutely." Caecilus paused, then asked, "That's good, is it?"

"Only the grain of wheat knows where it will grow," was his obscure answer. I fought not to giggle hysterically at this utter nonsense.

Metella moved to her husband's side while he stated reverently, "There now, Metella. Have you ever heard such wisdom?"

"Never. It's an honour," she replied, continuing to flatter Lucius.

Caecilius noticed the Doctor, Donna and me standing off to the side and hastened to introduce us. "Pardon me, sir. I have guests. This is Spartacus," he gestured to the Doctor, "er, Spartacus," he gestured to Donna, "and Tanaquil," and he gestured to me.

We all waved and the Doctor grinned that foolish grin of his. Nevertheless, Lucius did not seem impressed. "A name is but a cloud upon a summer wind."

The Doctor replied, "But the wind is felt most keenly in the dark."

Lucius stepped forward and shot back, "Ah! But what is the dark, other than an omen of the sun?"

The Doctor glanced down and started, "I concede that every sun must set-"

"Ha!" Lucius proclaimed.

"-and yet the sun of the father must also rise," the Doctor finished, gesturing to Quintus and Caecilius. I sighed, wondering how the Doctor came up with this stuff. 'The sun of the father must also rise'? Where the hell did that come from?

Lucius looked disappointed. "Damn. Very clever, sir. Evidently, a man of learning."

"Oh, yes. But don't mind me. Don't want to disturb the status quo."** I rolled my eyes. The Doctor just had to keep using Latin expressions!

Caecilius leaned in to Lucius and whispered apologetically, "He's Celtic."

The Doctor pointed away and said, "We'll be off in a minute."

He steered Donna towards the TARDIS, but she wasn't having it. "I'm not going," she protested quietly.

I heard Caecilius pronounce proudly behind us, "It's ready sir."

"You've got to," the Doctor muttered back to the fiery red-head.

"Well, I'm not," was her stubborn response. We were almost at the TARDIS. I glanced anxiously back to Caecilius, Metella and Lucius, who were poring over a slab of marble covered in a cloth. They needed to say something to get the Doctor's attention so that he could figure out the Pyrovillians' plan.

Finally, just in time, Caecilius declared, "The moment of revelation. And here it is." The Doctor and I looked back to see the marble circuit being unveiled. Bless the Doctor and his curiosity!

"Exactly as you specified. It pleases you, sir?" Caecilius continued.

"As the rain pleases the soil," Lucius admitted, coming as close to smiling as I had ever seen him in the episode.

The Doctor walked back to the group, crossing his arms and asking, "Oh, now that's different. Who designed that, then?" Donna followed him, probably also curious as to what the fuss was about. I, meanwhile, was one of the only ones in the room who knew of its true significance.

Caecilius turned to us and replied, "My Lord Lucius was very specific."

"Where'd you get the pattern?" I asked. I hadn't said anything since I had mentioned that I wasn't the Doctor's and Donna's daughter.

Lucius looked at me like he'd just tasted something bitter and answered, "On the rain and mist and wind." The Doctor gave me a raised-brow look of  _Seriously? Can you believe this guy?_  and I nodded.

Donna muttered to us, "But that looks like a circuit."

"Made of stone," the Doctor corrected.

This time, Donna addressed Lucius directly. "Do you mean you just dreamt that thing up?"

"That is my job, as City Augur," Lucius tersely retorted.

Donna asked innocently, "What's that, then, like the mayor?"

The Doctor laughed and apologized to the others. "You must excuse my friend, she's from... Barcelona." Then, in an undertone to me and Donna, he remarked, "No, this is an age of superstition. Of  _official_ superstition. The Augur is paid by the city to tell the future. The wind will blow from the west? That the equivalent of ten o'clock news."

Suddenly, a new voice joined the room, and they said, "They're laughing at us. Those three, they use words like tricksters. They're mocking us."

We all pivoted and spotted Evelina, Caecilius and Metella's daughter, in the doorway. She looked like she was about to faint (and she soon would); she was swaying as she stood, her skin was unnaturally pale and the skin under her eyes looked bruised.

The Doctor was quick to correct her. "No, no, I'm not. I meant no offence."

Metella rushed to Evelina's side and apologized. "I'm sorry. My daughter's been consuming the vapours."

Quintus looked horrified, as well he should be. "Oh for gods, Mother. What have you been doing to her?"

"Not now, Quintus!" Caecilius hissed from behind him.

"Yeah, but she's sick. Just look at her!" Quintus retorted, pointing at his sister. She was so pale, you could hardly tell they were siblings.

Lucius stepped closer to the woman and girl. "I gather I have a rival in this household. Another with the gift."

Metella remarked with pride, "Oh, she'd been promised to the Sibylline Sisterhood. They say she has remarkable visions."

Of course, Lucius, the git, had to figuratively shoot her down. "The prophecies of women are limited and dull. Only the menfolk have the capacity for true perception."

Me and Donna both looked at him, eyebrows raised dangerously.  _Excuse me?_  I wanted to ask.

Donna declared, "I'll tell you where the wind's blowing right now, mate."

At her words, the ground shook a little, and Mr. Surly-Face said, "The Mountain God marks your words. I'd be careful, if I were you."

The Doctor, hands in pockets, asked Evelina, "Consuming the vapours, you say?"

"They give me strength."

I snorted. "It doesn't look like it to me," the Doctor replied.

Evelina raised her delicate eyebrows and retorted, "Is that your opinion... as a doctor?"

I restrained myself from giggling.  _This_ was my favourite part of the episode.

The Doctor's eyebrows raised to his hairline, obviously astonished. He'd never said his name in front of her. "I beg your pardon?" he asked incredulously.

"Doctor. That's your name."

"How did you know that?" Now his eyebrows were lowered in contemplation.

Evelina looked towards Donna. "And you. You call yourself Noble." Donna looked confused and uneasy as the ground trembled again, as if in preparation for something. I could feel the rising trepidation and tension in the room, waiting to be released in one great burst.

Metella admonished her daughter, thinking that she meant noble as in the adjective. "Now then, Evelina. Don't be rude."

The Doctor glanced around the room as he insisted, "No, no, no, no. Let her talk."

Evelina looked to me now, and claimed, "You three come from so far away. But the girl is the farthest from home." The earth shivered as if in reaction to her words.

I looked at her, surprised that she would speak to me. Then again, with me in this universe, the timelines were irrevocably changed.

"The female soothsayer is inclined to invent all sorts of vagaries," Lucius spoke up.

The Doctor turned to Lucius, gaze furrowed, and observed, "Oh, not this time, Lucius. No, I reckon you've been out-soothsayed."  
Lucius stared at the Doctor challengingly and proclaimed, "Is that so, man from Gallifrey?" Now, as the land shuddered for a third time since the psychics started talking, the earth didn't stop shaking after a few seconds. It kept going.

The Doctor's attention was riveted to Lucius. "What?" he asked disbelievingly.

"The strangest of images. Your home is lost in fire, is it not?" came the shocking answer. The Doctor's gaze was fixed on Lucius' face, scrutinizing every bit of it like it was something he'd never seen before in his long life.

Donna asked, panicked, "Doctor, what are they doing?"

This just got Lucius' attention rotated towards her. "And you, daughter of... London."

"How does he know that?" she demanded quietly, looking wary.

"And you, girl from another world. You are not meant to be here." This was directed to me. I remained silent, but stood stock-still, watching everything. I already knew how these people came about this knowledge, so I wasn't as shocked as Donna or as astonished as the Doctor.

Donna glanced between me and Lucius. "That's impossible."

"This is the gift of Pompeii. Every single oracle tells the truth," he said to her. Then, his unnerving stare was situated on the Doctor again. "Doctor, she is returning." He meant Rose.

The Doctor's face began to look disturbed. "Who is? Who's she?" he asked anxiously. He got no answer; not yet.

"And you, daughter of London. There is something on your back."

"What's that mean?" Donna asked, discomfited and uncomfortable. I kept observing the room, noticing the quaking of the floor getting worse.

Lucius continued, "And you, girl from another world. They are entwining." Wait... what?  _Who_ are entwining? What was he talking about? And could people even  _entwine_ themselves anyway?

Evelina piped up again, slowly walking towards the Doctor with all the grace of a drunkard. "Even the word Doctor is false. Your real name is hidden. It burns in the stars, in the Cascade of Medusa herself. You are a Lord, sir. A Lord of Time." And finally, the scene came to a climax as the ground shook the hardest it had as of yet and she fainted dead away, slumping bonelessly to the floor.

* * *

Latin translations:

*Let the buyer beware

**the existing state of affairs


	10. The Fires of Pompeii Part 3

As soon as she fainted, everyone but me and Lucius went automatically to Evelina's aid. Her mother even cried worriedly, "Evelina!" But I knew that she would be fine.

The Doctor happened to be standing the closest to her and he checked her pulse on her neck and on her wrist. "She's alive," he pronounced. "She's only fainted."

I sighed heavily as Metella breathed, "Oh, thank the Gods," and held her daughter close to her. Caecilius came closer and offered to carry Evelina to another room to be looked after and Metella gently placed her limp body into Caecilius' waiting arms. Donna, Metella and Quintus followed him to a nearby room while I stayed with the Doctor and watched as Lucius ordered his men to carry the stone circuit out of the villa. When he had left, I turned to the Doctor and asked, "So, what do you think they were talking about, then?"

He glanced at me from where he had been staring thoughtfully at middle distance and replied, "What do you mean?"

"The soothsayers, or psychics, or whatever you want to call them. How do you think they knew that much stuff about us?"

The Doctor clucked his tongue and exhaled noisily. "I don't know yet. That's a change," he chuckled. "Do you know?"

I grinned toothily, a bit like the Chesire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, and said, "Doctor, I always know."

He only had time to roll his eyes before Caecilius came back from Evelina's room. He scratched his head and declared, "Well, Evelina's settled down. I apologize for the, er,  _spell_ she had. Happens every now and then, what with her being a seer."

"Oh, that's alright. I was wondering, though, if I could have a look at your hypocaust over there," the Doctor asked, pointing over to the hypocaust where fumes could be seen rising out. I shuddered as I realized that that hypocaust was where the adult Pyroviliian would come out.

"Sure, but why would you want to examine it?" Caecilius questioned as he walked to other side of the room for a candle holder.

The Doctor was already on his way over there, but he answered, "Just been wondering about it, is all." He reached it and pried the grille off with a grunt. "Different sort of hypocaust?" he asked.

"Oh, yes. We're very advanced in Pompeii. In Rome, they're still using the old wood-burning furnaces, but we've got hot springs, leading from Vesuvius itself." He remarked proudly as he sat down next to me and the Doctor.

"Who thought of that?" I asked as the Doctor opened his mouth to ask the same question. He grumbled under his breath and gave me a look.

"The soothsayers, after the great earthquake, seventeen years ago. An awful lot of damage. But we rebuilt." He looked at me more closely and inquired with a curious expression, "Where are you three from, by the way? Your attire is... strange." He cast a quick glance to my black track shorts and pink T-shirt. "And Lord Lucius said that you were from another world, correct?"

I looked him in the eye and replied, "Yes, I am from another world. As for where we're from, we're from the future." Caecilius withdrew a little bit, stunned, and the Doctor stared at me, wide-eyed.

"Joyce..." he muttered admonishingly.

"It's true, though," I declared cheerfully.

"But that's nonsense," Caecilius sputtered. "What other world is there, other than the Earth? And how can you be from the  _future?_ "

"Never mind that for now, Caecilius. What I want to know is more about the earthquake. Why didn't you think about moving away after it?" The Doctor paused, then added, "Oh no, then again, San Francisco."

Caecilius frowned. "That's a new restaurant in... Naples, isn't it?"

Suddenly, there was a distant rumbling coming from the hypocaust and the Doctor looked down, startled. "What's that noise?"

"Don't know. Happens all the time. They say the gods of the Underworld are stirring," Caecilius answered. I studied him; now that his tone was more grave, he reminded me more of the Twelfth Doctor. To this day, I don't know why Caecilius and the Twelfth Doctor have the same face, but I'm guessing that it had something to do with the rift in time created by Vesuvius exploding. Actually, that could explain Amy's face appearing as the Sibylline soothsayer that was following us...

"...they'd always been, shall we say, imprecise?" I zoned back in to the conversation between Caecilius and the Doctor. "But then, the soothsayers, the augurs, the haruspex, all of them, they saw the truth again and again. It's quite amazing. They can predict crops and rainfall with absolute precision."

The Doctor was nodding all through Caecilius' explanation. Then he asked with knitted brows, "Haven't they said anything about tomorrow?"

I looked at the Time Lord pointedly as Caecilius responded, looking bewildered, "No. Why, should they? Why do you ask?"

Glancing between the Doctor and Caecilius, I wondered how he'd answer that. "No, no. No reason. I'm just asking," he said very casually. "But the soothsayers, they all consume the vapours, yeah?"

Caecilius nodded affirmatively. "That's how they see." I looked at each man's face and marvelled at how it was like two Doctors were talking to each other.

The Doctor put his glasses on and looked down into the hypocaust again. "Ipso facto,"* he remarked.

"Look, you..." Caecilius started.

The Doctor reached an arm down and collected some substance from the hypocaust. He sprinkled it into the air. "They're all consuming this," he announced. Me and Caecilius looked closer. It was a fine, powdery-like grainy thing, like dust. In fact, Caecilius asked if it  _was_ dust. But the Doctor corrected, "Tiny particles of rock." He tasted a bit of the powder (eww!) and commented solemnly , "They're breathing in Vesuvius."

"What do you mean, they're breathing in Vesuvius? Would that be harmful?" Caecilius demanded, probably worried for his daughter.

The Doctor jumped up and placed the grille back on with a  _clang._ "Oh, I don't know. Might be, might not.  _Anyways,_ I need to ask your son - Quintus, was it? - something. Something important."

"Quintus? Why, he's in the dining room. Probably drinking more wine, the foolish boy." Caecilius shook his head.

I chuckled and the Doctor smiled and replied, "Thank you." Caecilius nodded soberly and left the room.

I looked to the dining room and asked, "Hey Doctor, what do you want with Quintus?"

"Oh, I don't want too much. Just the address of Lucius Petrus Dextrus." He smirked and shrugged.

I laughed and inquired, "Okay, but why?"

He shook his head amusedly. "You're always asking questions, Joyce. I want to know because there's something  _strange_ going on here. The people of this time period  _definitely_ shouldn't have invented circuits, and especially not in marble, so I would like to know where that Lucius man got the design from. Other than, you know,  _on the rain and mist and wind._ " This last bit was said quite mockingly.

Snickering, I remarked, "Well, we don't have all day. Let's go ask Quintus and see if he knows where Lucius Dextrus lives." I headed for the dining room.

"Hold on a second," the Doctor called to me. I stopped short and looked back at him. "Why don't you just go in by yourself? I have a feeling that Quintus will take more kindly to a girl his age asking him for directions than if I did. If I ask him, I'll have to end up paying him."

I made a face, but he gestured for me to go in, so I sighed and continued on into the room. Quintus was drinking lazily from a goblet of liquid (probably wine) and reclining on a couch. "Hey, Quintus?"

He looked up with a curious expression and answered, "Yeah?"

"Do you know where that man, Lucius Petrus Dextrus, lives? I need to know."

He smiled and sat up more. "It should be nothing to do with me, but for a pretty face, I'll do almost anything." I grinned back and mentally cursed the Doctor for so obviously setting me up. "Sure, I know where he lives. Would you like me to guide you there, Tanaquil?"

"Yeah, okay."

He got up fully and we left the room together, his goblet of wine forgotten on the table. The Doctor was leaning against the wall a few steps away, hands in pockets. He joined us as we left the villa, Quintus quickly grabbing a torch on the way out. "Mind if I join you?" the Doctor asked. "I'm a bit curious about those marble slabs too," he added as way of explanation. Quintus shrugged and continued to quietly lead the way down the road and around a few corners to Lucius' villa.

During the walk there, me and Quintus talked for a bit. We discussed what life was like in Pompeii, what type of career he thought he'd have, how crazy parents could be and other things like that. He said that life in this city could be pretty fun if you knew where to go, but his father was apparently always trying to get him to clean up his act and get trained in the business of marble to follow in his father's footsteps. I asked him what he wanted to do when he was older and he replied that he didn't actually know, so for now he was just going to laze around and enjoy his life. I laughed, appreciating his view on things.

Finally, we arrived at a more posh-looking villa. We walked up to a side window with barrels under it and Quintus pleaded, "Don't tell my dad."

The Doctor jumped up on the barrels and opened the window with a protesting  _creak._ "Only if you don't tell mine," he whispered teasingly back. Then, he entered the window.

While waiting outside, Quintus explained to me, "It's bad enough that I'm outside at night without telling him first. If he finds out that I left the house with a strange girl, he'll have a fit."

I giggled. "Oh, so I'm  _strange,_  then?"

"Well, you are interesting, with your odd apparel and those twin lenses upon your face." He pointed to my glasses.

"Oh, you mean my glasses? They're lenses specially designed to correct my vision, which is too blurry. I get my bad vision from my parents."

Quintus opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the Doctor sticking his head out out of the window and calling, "Pass me that torch."

Quintus did and looked around nervously before mumbling to me, "I don't like standing outside in the open like this. I'm going in."

"Yeah, me too." And with that, I stepped up to the barrels and crawled on before worming my way in the window. I looked back and beckoned Quintus to come as well. "What are you waiting for?" I whispered. "Come on!"

He sighed, shook his head and joined us. By now, the Doctor was looking at a curtain and when he noticed that we had entered, he handed the torch to me and pulled the curtain off. Of course, it revealed six marble circuits in two rows of three. I heard Quintus exclaim, "The liar!" and I shushed him. But he went on, "He told my father it was the only one."

The Doctor put on his glasses and drawled, "Well, plenty of marble merchants in this town. Tell them all the same thing, get all the components from different places, so no one can see what you're building."

There was a brief pause, then Quintus inquired confusedly, "Which is what?"

"The future, Doctor!" another voice piped up from behind us suddenly. We all turned as one to face one Lucius Petrus Dextrus, accompanied by two guards. "We are building the future, as dictated by the gods. Kill them." This last bit he ordered to the guards behind him, and they stepped forward and drew their swords. I froze, nearly dropping the torch in shock, and Quintus' breath picked up speed.

The Doctor instantly was in front of me, arms out to the side. "Hold on! Hold on... just a minute. Before I die, I have something to say."

"And what would that be, Doctor?"

"These stone boards, they're not in the right arrangement. You don't even know how to put them together, do you?" he replied, gesturing with his head to the circuit boards behind us.

Lucius didn't speak for a moment, and I held my breath. My heart felt heavy in my throat. Finally, he admitted, "You may illuminate me." He also motioned for the two guards to stand down, and they did. I exhaled in relief.

The Doctor turned around and started talking to himself. "Okay," he began. He turned one tile upside down in its place. Then, the Doctor picked up a different tile, saying, "Hold this," and handed it to Quintus. "Put this one there," he said as he transferred another tile to its place. Finally, with a, "This one there," the Doctor placed the tile that Quintus was holding in the only empty space. "Er, keep that one upside down, and what you got?"

"Enlighten me," Lucius replied crisply.

I smirked as the Doctor mocked, "What, the soothsayer doesn't know?"

The augur only remarked, "The seed may float on the breeze in any direction."

"Yeah, I knew you were going to say that," the Time Lord stated before continuing. " _But_  it's an energy converter."

"An energy converter of what?"

"I don't know. Isn't that brilliant?" The Doctor grinned widely. "I love not knowing. Keeps me on my toes." He skipped over to Lucius and sort of sat next to him.  _For god's sake, Doctor,_ I thought. "It must be awful being a prophet, waking up every morning, is it raining? Yes, it is, I said so. Takes all the fun out of life. But who designed this, Lucius, hmm? Who gave you these instructions?" He eyed the man up and down, who was beginning to look very disgruntled.

"I think you've babbled enough." Honestly, did the man just have a default expression of one who's just eaten a lemon?

In a lower voice, one meant to invoke trust in most people, the Doctor said, "Lucius, really, tell me. Honestly, I'm on your side. I can help." The only problem with that was that Lucius wasn't in trouble, he was doing all this most willingly. I rolled my eyes, but no one noticed.

"You insult the gods. There can only be one sentence. At arms!" I jumped as Lucius ordered his men to draw their swords again and the Doctor snapped off his glasses and stepped back.

"Morturi te salutant,"** he remarked.

Lucius, the idiot, gloated, "Celtic prayers won't help you now."

Suddenly, I heard Quintus pipe up from the left, "But it was them, sir. They made me do it. Mister Dextrus, please don't."  _Coward,_ I thought. I reached over and slapped him on the arm admonishingly. He gave me a nervous glance.

"Come on now, Quintus, dignity in death." The Doctor turned back to Lucius. "I respect your victory, Lucius. Shake on it?" He held out his hand, but Lucius didn't take it. "Come on. Dying man's wish?" He didn't even shake the Doctor's hand then.

Of course, the Doctor, getting no response from Lucius but a sour look, lunged forward and ripped Lucius right arm from his shoulder. I shouldn't have been surprised, but the  _crack_ that echoed around the room made me nauseous.

"But he's - " Quintus began in shock.

The Doctor cut him off and whispered, "Show me."

Lucius threw off the right side of his cloak to expose his calcified grey upper arm, now missing the rest of the appendage. "The work of the gods," he said by way of explanation.

"He's stone," poor Quintus observed from the corner.

"Armless enough, though." The Doctor, brilliant alien he is, threw Lucius' stone arm back to the man. "Whoops!" Then, he yelled, "Quintus! Joyce!"

I threw the torch at a guard and the Doctor soniced the stone tiles, which made them tumble to the floor with a clatter. All three of us dashed to window and jumped out, me nearly losing my balance upon impact with the street outside, but the Doctor held me up. I heard Lucius shout, "The carvings!" in a panicked voice inside and wished that they had actually been damaged. Then, maybe the city wouldn't have burned.

"RUN!" the Doctor screamed as he pushed me and Quintus ahead of him, looking back for any followers as he did so. Until then, I don't think I've ever run so fast in my life. We ran down the street and around two corners before the Doctor decided that he we had run far enough. "No sign of them," he announced, glancing around.

Quintus and I leaned down and put our hands on our knees, very out of breath.  _I really need to get a better stamina,_ I concluded. "Nice little bit of allons-y. I think we're alright." The Doctor patted me and Quintus on the back and I straightened, getting ready to run. I had just remembered that  _this_ was when the adult Pyrovile started to follow the Doctor and Quintus on orders of Lucius.

"But his arm, Doctor." Quintus paused. "Is that what's happening to Evelina?" he continued in an anxious tone.

Abruptly, a rumbling could be heard to our right, down the street. A dog started to bark. The rumbling was coming closer and closer. "What was that?" the Doctor wondered aloud. Him and Quintus were both facing the direction of the noise, but I was facing the opposite direction, stretching my leg muscles and preparing myself for a sprint. The next time I go on an adventure with the Doctor, I am bringing extra electrolyte drinks and water bottles.

"The mountain?" Quintus asked as he stared apprehensively at Vesuvius.

"No, it's closer," came the Doctor's distracted reply as he watched some carts of goods fall over from the earth trembling. His eyes widened and he turned ever so slightly to the left to start running when he finally realized what the sound was, since it had a certain rhythmic beat. "Footsteps," he breathed in a horrified voice.

Quintus gaped at him. "It can't be!"

But the Doctor only looked down. "Footsteps underground," he amended quietly.

"What is it? What is it?"

But Quintus' question went unanswered as the Doctor suddenly pivoted and literally  _dragged_ me and Quintus with him, sprinting away at top speed. I ducked and covered my head with my arms as hypocaust grilles burst off around us. You know how I said before when we were running from Lucius' villa that I didn't think I'd ever run so fast in all my life? Yeah, scratch that.  _Now_ I felt like I was running for my life. Which makes sense, since we were being pursued by a giant lava-rock alien which could run underground and spew fire.

At last, Caecilius' villa came in sight and we burst through the door without even bothering to open it, so it flew off its hinges. "Caecilius? All of you, get out!" the Doctor cried.

Donna ran to us, alarmed. "Doctor, Joyce, what is it?"

"I think we're being followed," he answered solemnly.

We all jumped and turned to the hypocaust when the grille actually  _flew off_ and landed a few feet away. The footsteps were awfully thunderous by now. "Just get out!" I screamed with all the meager breath I had in me. The Doctor started to push everyone to the exit, but we all looked back when the floor started to crack mightily around the hypocaust.

Adrenaline nearly drowned me as a fully-grown Pyrovillian soldier emerged, its head almost scraping the ceiling when it stood.  _Holy crap..._

"The gods are with us!" Evelina assumed.

"Water! We need water! Quintus. Joyce. All of you, get water! Donna!" The Doctor, bless him, had figured out how to get rid of a magma creature. I was too frozen to do anything but stand and gawk at the otherworldly behemoth not ten feet away.

A poor slave stepped forward and announced, "Blessed are we to see the gods."

His "god" inhaled, about to incinerate the man. Then, in one exhale, a burst of fire burned him to ash instantly. Just like that. I was appalled and sickened just by the mere sight. The Doctor stared for a second in astonishment, then he looked up at the Pyrovillian, putting his hands up to calm it down and moving in front of everyone else.

"Talk to me. That's all I want. Talk to me. Just tell me who you are. Don't hurt these people!" Of course, he got no response. Briefly, I wondered if it could actually talk. The Doctor tried again. "Talk to me. I'm the Doctor. Just tell me who you are."

At long last, Quintus and a slave returned with each a bucket and Quintus scooped some water and threw it on the creature. The Doctor pushed him back behind him and we all watched with bated breath as the alien's internal magma cooled and hardened, rendering the being basically dead as its rock carapace crumbled and fell to the floor in a heap.

 _My god._ We all gaped at the rocks on the floor, too stunned to act or say anything. The room was silent and still. Then, Caecilius' nervous voice broke the tension. "What was it?"

"Carapace of stone, held together by internal magma," I replied faintly.

The Doctor nodded. "Not too difficult to stop, but I reckon that's just the foot soldier."

Metella now stepped forward. "Doctor, or whatever your name is, you bring bad luck on this house."

"Frankly, Metella, your son just saved all of our lives. Aren't you a bit more preoccupied with that?" I snarked. She glared at me, but opened her arms and hugged Quintus close to her.

I crept closer to the Doctor, who was contemplating the Pyrovillian. "Still, if there are aliens at work in Pompeii, it's a good thing we stayed," he muttered. Hearing no reply, he glanced sideways at me, then looked over his shoulder, scanning the room. "Joyce, where's Donna?" he inquired uneasily.

"Don't know," I answered, though I did. She must have been taken by the Sibylline sisters.

"Donna?" the Doctor called. No response. "Donna?" Nothing. "DONNA!"

* * *

**Latin translations:**

***By the very fact**

****I am about to die so I salute you**


	11. The Fires of Pompeii Part 4

Metella and her family stepped nearer to us, curious yet cautious looks upon their faces. "Doctor, what is it? Where is your friend?" she asked, glancing around for Donna. I guess she was so confused because Donna had literally been standing a few feet away just a couple of seconds ago, but everyone was too preoccupied with the gargantuan stone-lava-monster-thing in the living room to notice her kidnapping.

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, looking anxious, but he quickly masked it, winked at me conspiratorially and turned to Metella, saying nonchalantly, "Oh, she'll turn up. I'm sure of it." Here, the Doctor eyed me, then continued, "We'll just get out of your hair. Come, Tanaquil."

Caecilius started to protest about the blue box still in the corner, wondering why we would leave it here when we had made such a fuss over it earlier, but the Doctor pacified him with some such mollifying statement and we left. It was getting to be dawn, so I could sort of make out the Doctor's face as he scanned our surroundings, trying to figure out which direction to start looking, probably.

He opened his mouth, but I beat him to it. "She's being held in the Sibylline temple."

The Doctor's brow furrowed, but he only shook his head and accepted my answer and off we went, on the lookout for the temple. Of course, I had absolutely _no_ idea what the temple looked like, since I'd only ever seen the inside of it, but I guess the Doctor had been to Pompeii before because in a few short minutes, he located it, pointing out to me a tall, dignified yet rustic building with lanky, liquefying candles in all the great windows. "That right there."

"Ok. How do we get in?"

"Remember Adipose Industries?" he cheekily replied.

I groaned. "Doctor, not again!"

"Yup," the Doctor answered, popping the "p" as he was wont to do.

So, we snuck around to the side, looking for a door. We found one, the Doctor making a snarky comment on their security as he sonicked the old-fashioned lock. He may have acted flippant, but I could tell that he was angry at the Sibylline for taking Donna. We crept down a pitch-black hallway (I felt the walls that made it up when we first entered - they were cold and slimy!), me holding onto the Doctor's sleeve before he grabbed my hand and squeezed it, giving me mental strength. I do not like the dark.

We finally reached the end, where I could hear Donna yelling angrily at the Sibylline sisters, "Listen, sister, you might have eyes on the back of your hands, but you'll have eyes on the back of your head by the time I'm finished with you! LET. ME. _GO_!"

The Doctor and I shared a chuckle over Donna's spirit before pushing open the secret door in front of us that lead to where Donna was being held. Or rather, _tied down,_ as I saw when we entered. The Doctor immediately scanned the room, pausing over Donna's purple-toga-clad form tied down to a stone slab, then moved on. I guessed that he was looking for Donna, making sure that she was alright for now, then searching for an escape route once he got her free. We watched for a few seconds, me waiting for the Doctor to intervene.

Sister Spurrina raised a lethal-yet-freaky-looking knife. "This prattling voice will cease forever."

The Doctor, leaning against a column, said very casually, "Oh, that'll be the day."

The sisters all gasped, turning, and I spied Donna jerk her head up, catch sight of us, gasp, grin widely and relax, relieved that we were here to rescue her.

"No man is allowed to enter the Temple of Sibyl," Sister Spurrina proclaimed, her makeup-covered face looking eerie in the dancing candlelight.

"Well that's alright." The Time Lord shrugged. "Just us girls." I snickered. The Doctor moved away from the column and I followed, listening to his speech but still staring at the knife in Sister Spurrina's hands. If this didn't work, I was prepared to jump forward and stop the knife's descent, but I trusted the Doctor. He always finds a way. The Doctor kept speaking as he walked towards the stone slab, hands in his bottomless pockets. "Do you know, I met the Sibyl once. Yeah, hell of a woman. Blimey, she could dance the Tarantella. Nice teeth. Truth be told, I think she had a bit of a thing for me. I said it would never last. She said, I know. Well, she would." We reached the slab and I looked down at Donna and asked, "You all right there?"

"Oh, never better," she spat.

"I like the toga." the Doctor noted.

"Thank you. And the ropes?" Donna demanded sarcastically.

"Yeah, not so much." The Doctor raised his sonic screwdriver and, one at a time, sonicked off the robes restraining Donna's wrists.

She got up as Sister Spurrina inquired, bewildered, "What magic is this?"

The Doctor started to lecture the sisters, glancing at all of them in turn. "Let me tell you about the Sibyl, the founder of this religion. She would be ashamed of you. All her wisdom and insight turned _sour._ Is that how you spread the word, eh? On the blade of a knife?"

"Yes, a knife that now welcomes _you,_ " Sister Spurrina replied, raising the knife and pointing it at us threateningly with a leering, maniacal grin.

Suddenly (well, not to me, but surely, to the others it was), the High Priestess spoke up from behind the curtain that went around her bed, "Show me these people."

All of the sisters, with the exception of Sister Spurrina, turned as one to the High Priestess' bed and knelt. The Doctor and Donna looked suitably disturbed and creeped out from this show of sudden submission.

Sister Spurrina protested, "High Priestess, the stranger would defile us."

"Let me see. These ones are different. The man carries starlight in his wake."

The Doctor, me and Donna moved closer to the bed. "Oh, very perceptive. Where do these words of wisdom come from?"

"The gods whisper to me," was his answer.

I pitied her. "They've done far more than that," I whispered.

The Doctor glanced at me, then looked back at the sisters. "Might I beg audience? Look upon the High Priestess?"

Two of the sisters rose and drew aside the curtain around the High Priestess' bed. I wondered, briefly, what the High Priestess, now completely stone on the outside, had looked like before her slow transformation. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw all of the sisters except Sister Spurrina lie down in child's pose with their arms in front of them while Donna gasped and the Doctor's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the state of the High Priestess. I think he already had suspicions of what had happened to the High Priestess, if I based myself on what he had said earlier at the hypocaust with Caecilius. Donna was focused on the High Priestess as she breathed, "Oh, my God. What's happened to you?"

The stone High Priestess answered, "The heavens have blessed me."

The Doctor moved closer while me and Donna stayed back and held out his hand for hers. "If I might?" he asked politely. She held out her hand for him to take and he did, kneeling down examining it before inquiring gently, "Does it hurt?"

"It is necessary," the High Priestess rasped.

The Doctor looked up at her, concerned. "Who told you that?"

"The voices." It was pretty creepy how, so far, she kept speaking without looking directly _at_ anyone.

Donna wore a horrified look upon her face. "Is that what's going to happen to Evelina?" she asked the Doctor. Then she turned towards the sisters around us and demanded in a louder voice, "Is this what's going to happen to all of you?"

Sister Spurrina stepped forward, pulling up her sleeve and holding out her arm for Donna to look at. "The blessings are manifold," she explained.

Donna held her stone wrist and declared, aghast, "They're... stone."

The Doctor stood back up, put his hands in his pockets and and moved away from the High Priestess and halfway back to us, replying, "Exactly. The people of Pompeii are turning to stone before the volcano erupts." He twisted back to face the High Priestess. "But why?"

The High Priestess seemed to be caught up on one particular thing that the Time Lord had said. "This word, this image in your mind. This... _volcano._ What is that?" Ah, of course. They didn't have a word for massive-lava-spewing-mountain. _Yet._

The Doctor was confused. "More to the point, why don't you know about it? Who are you?"

"High Priestess of the Sibylline!" was the proud answer.

"No, no, no, no. I'm talking to the creature inside you." Here, I could have sworn that the Doctor had a small _snarl_ on his face; he seemed more like the Oncoming Storm; I could tell that he was pissed off that someone was messing with Earth. _Again._ But he continued, looking her up and down and he queried, "The thing that's seeding itself into a human body, in the dust, in the lungs, taking over the flesh and turning it into, what?"

"Your knowledge... is impossible."

The Doctor leaned forward, replying, "Oh, but you can read my mind. You know it's not." In a more intense tone of voice he ordered, "I demand you tell me who you are."

The High Priestess started to speak in her own voice, but it morphed halfway through the second word to a more guttural, deep tone. "We... are... awakening!" She, or, at this point, _it,_ started to act agitated, twisting its neck and bending down while still maintaining its sitting position.

"The voice of the gods," Sister Spurrina asserted, her face solemn.

This, of course, caused the other sisters to get up and start rocking back and forth, chanting eerily, "Words of wisdom, words of power. Words of wisdom, words of power. Words of wisdom..." The Doctor, Donna and I looked back at them, my two companions looking suitably disquieted while I remained steadfastly stoic, knowing how all of this would end. Hell, if I was going to survive any of this, I couldn't let it get to me.

They kept chanting as the Doctor started to panic. He demanded, getting more and more angered as he went along, "Name yourself. Planet of origin. Galactic coordinates. Species designation according to the universal ratification of the Shadow Proclamation."

The _thing_ that was controlling the High Priestess' body just stopped squirming and almost echoed its declaration from before, arms out to the side and head upturned, "We... are... rising!" in the same voice.

By now, the Doctor had gotten closer to the bed and copied its actions, holding his arms out slightly and practically yelling, "Tell... me... your name!"

Finally, it tore off the scarf-thing that the High Priestess had worn as the Doctor stepped back cautiously and it shouted back in an awful voice, "Pyrovile!" dragging the word out. Sister Spurrina looked genuinely freaked out by this time, staring right at her previous High Priestess.

The sisters on the floor started to chant, probably thinking it to be the "god's" name, "Pyrovile. Pyrovile. Pyrovile..."

They continued to chant in the background as Donna and I advanced to the Doctor's side, quite creeped out by now by the weird chanting. Donna inquired quietly to the Doctor, "What's a Pyrovile?"

He nodded to the Pyrovile, who was grinning uncannily at the sisters, on the bed in front of us. "Well, that's a Pyrovile, growing inside her. She's a halfway stage."

Donna's mouth fell open in shock. "What, and that turns into...?"

"That thing in the villa. That was an adult Pyrovile," I answered.

It pointed at the Doctor and threatened, "And the breath of a Pyrovile will incinerate you, Doctor."

Somehow, the Doctor produced a yellow water gun from his suit jacket and pointed it at the Pyrovile. He cautioned, "I warn you, I'm armed." To Donna, who had glanced at his "weapon" and then had done an incredulous double-take, he bid, "Donna, get that grill open."

Donna looked baffled. "What for?"

"Just..." he prompted her with his head gesturing towards the direction of a hypocaust behind us. He pointed the water gun at the still-chanting sisters behind us, then pointed it at the now-standing Pyrovile in front of us. "What are the Pyrovile doing here?"

The Pyrovile answered, its arms spread out again, "We fell from the heavens. We fell so far and so fast, we were rendered into dust."

The Doctor seemed to reason it out aloud, thinking back to what he had learned from Caecilius and the "earthquake". "Right, creatures of stone shattered on impact. When was that, seventeen years ago?"

"We have slept beneath for thousands of years."

"Okay, so seventeen years ago woke you up, and now you're using human bodies to reconstitute yourselves." He twisted back to the _still-_ chanting sisters to point his water gun at them, then turned back to the Pyrovile, water gun trained on it. "But why the psychic powers?"

"We opened their minds and found such gifts."

The Doctor nodded. "Okay, that's fine. So you force yourself inside a human brain, use the latent psychic talent to bond. I get that, I get that, yeah. But seeing the future? That is way beyond psychic. You can see through time. Where does the gift of prophecy come from?" I spied Sister Spurrina glance anxiously between the Doctor and the former High Priestess.

All of a sudden, Donna called from over by the hypocaust, "Got it!"

The Doctor moved so his back was to Donna, but he continued to watch the Pyrovile and the sisters. "Good. Now get down."

Donna gasped, confounded as to why he wanted her to go down to the quite heated tunnel system. "What, _down there?_ "

The Doctor, exasperated, answered, " _Yes,_ down there." He focused back on the Pyrovile. "Why can't this lot predict a volcano? Why is it being hidden?"

Suddenly, Sister Spurrina tensed and looked up, declaring, "Sisters, I see into his mind. The weapon is harmless."

The Doctor glanced at his water gun before replying, "Yeah, but it's got to sting," and shooting water at the Pyrovile, who started moaning loudly and cringing back. Over his shoulder, he yelled, "Get down there!" at Donna and I while he inched backwards to the hypocaust.

Me and Donna jumped down while the sisters stopped their bloody chanting already and went to help their "High Priestess." When the Doctor had jumped and landed next to us, Donna said, out of breath, "You fought her off with a water pistol. I bloody _love_ you."

He got up and started walking down the tunnel behind us. "This way," he called back.

Donna got up, helping me up because the heat was already getting to me. She asked, "Where are we going now?"

The Time Lord stopped walking, turned back and replied matter-of-factly, "Into the volcano."

"No way." Donna looked appalled.

"Yes, way," came the cheeky response. He did some weird twirly-thing to the water gun and tucked it back into his pocket. "Appian way." And he set off again.

We walked for a bit in silence with the Doctor leading, our way lit by intermittent fires burning off to the side, until Donna suddenly asked, as the tunnel veered downwards, "So, it's those Pyrovile-things that are making Vesuvius explode, yeah?"

The Doctor replied curtly, "Yes."

Of course, Donna started bringing up the topic of saving Pompeii again. "But if it's aliens setting off the volcano, doesn't that make it all right for you to stop it?"

The Doctor asserted, "Still part of history."

Donna didn't give up. "But I'm history to you. You saved me in 2008. You saved us all. Why is that different?"

"Some things are fixed, some things are in flux. Pompeii is fixed," he explained.

"How do you know which is which?"

The Time Lord stoped suddenly and turned to face us, saying in a quiet, sad voice, "Because that's how I see the universe. Every waking second, I can see what is, what was, what could be, what must not... That's the burden of a Time Lord, Donna. And I'm the only one left." He turned back and kept walking.

Donna was determined to make him see things her way. She followed after him and I followed her, deciding that I'd better keep out of this one. "How many people died?" she demanded.

"Stop it." The order was given without even turning around.

She repeated, "Doctor, how many people _died?_ "

The Doctor finally stopped and faced her, answering grimly, "Twenty thousand."

Donna looked indignant at his response. "Is that what you can see, Doctor? All twenty thousand? And you think that's all right, do you?"

We all jumped when a roar came from behind me and Donna. The Doctor grabbed our arms and pushed us forwards, saying, "They know we're here. Come on."

After some more speed-walking (or, as close to speed-walking as we could manage in the heat and with the terrain - good thing I'd worn porous clothing and my best running shoes!), we arrived, at last, from an enormous rock at a large clearing with a _hell_ of a lot of Pyroviles in it. We crouched down and the Doctor shushed us as he glanced anxiously at the huge space crawling with the immense lava-stone aliens.

The Doctor stated, "It's the heart of Vesuvius. We're right inside the mountain."

"There's tons of them," Donna expressed, completely covered in sweat. I guessed that I looked a sight, too.

The Doctor was focusing on something in the distance. "What's that thing?" he inquired quietly to himself. He produced a monocular from his pocket (again, from _where,_ exactly, I have no idea) and he magnified the thing in his vision while Donna looked behind us.

Suddenly, she breathed, "Oh, you better hurry up and think of something. Rocky five's on its way."

I squinted (it's a miracle that I hadn't lose my glasses in all this drama) and spied a hollowed-out rock with all of the marble circuits inside. "That's how they arrived. Or what's left of it. Escape pod? Prison ship? Gene bank?" The Doctor put down his monocular as he pondered the carved out rock.

"But why do they need a volcano? Maybe it erupts, and they launch themselves back into space or something?" Donna questioned.

"Oh, it's worse than that," I stated ominously, knowing the full plan of the Pyroviles.

Donna turned to me, out of breath and baffled, and asked, "How could it be worse?" A roar sounded out from whence we came and we all startled. "Doctor, it's getting closer," Donna announced nervously.

Suddenly, from a ridge at the other side of the scorching cavern, that moron, Lucius, called out, "Heathens! Defilers! They would desecrate your temple, my lord gods."

Evidently, it was time to go. "Come on," the Doctor directed to me and Donna, helping us down from where we had huddled together.

Donna resisted him. "We can't go in!"

I replied, "Well, we can't go back!" pulling her along.

She let out a soft, "Oh!" as she stumbled a bit on the way down, but we made it safely to bottom level of the cavern. From there, we ran towards the what I knew was an escape pod.

I faintly heard Lucius yell, "Crush them! Burn them!" to the Pyroviles. Disgusted at him, I nearly forgot the adult Pyrovile that would rear up in front us, blocking our path to relative safety. But I did remember and stopped just before it raised itself up to its full height and stomped forward. Donna and I backed up, her mouth falling open in utter shock and dread, but the Doctor, ever quick on his feet, extinguished it with his water pistol, making it screech and a lot of steam rise up. Once it had stumbled out of our way, we continued to run to the escape pod. As we got closer, Lucius asserted, "There is nowhere to run, Doctor, daughter of London and girl from another world!"

We finally reached the escape pod and turned around, the Doctor still holding his water gun like a character from an old spy movie while announcing, "Now then, Lucius. My lord Pyrovillian, don't get yourselves in a lava. In a lava? No?" Here, the Doctor looked to us for confirmation that his pun was satisfyingly funny, or at least clever.

Donna, without hesitation, replied, "No." If I'd had the energy, I would've laughed.

He made a what-can-you-do gesture with his head, but went on, "But if I might beg the wisdom of the gods before we perish. Once this new race of creatures is complete, then what?"

"My masters will follow the example of Rome itself. An almighty empire, bestriding the whole of civilisation." As Lucius was talking, a Pyrovile stomped past him, sending rocks spraying up as it went. I wondered, briefly, why the guy's mouth always seemed to stretch open in such a stupid-looking manner when he talked.

"But if you've crashed, and you've got all this technology, why don't you _just. Go. Home_?" Donna yelled-asked.

"The Heaven of Pyrovillia... is gone."

"What do you mean, gone? Where's it gone?" the Doctor inquired, bewildered.

"It was _taken!_ Pyrovillia is lost. But there is heat enough in this world for a new species to rise," came the insane answer.

The Doctor, ever irreverent, pointed behind us and said, "Yeah, I should warn you, it's seventy percent water out there." Donna just gave him a look.

"Water can boil. And everything will burn, Doctor!"

The Doctor put away his water gun and decided, "Then the whole planet is at stake. Thank you. That's all I needed to know." He turned and guided us into the escape pod, saying, "Donna, Joyce." As soon as we were inside, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and closed the curved stone door, cutting us off from the Pyroviles and Lucius. Which was good, as I decided that I'd had enough of having to hear Lucius' irritating voice.

We all turned to face the stone circuits set up in the escape pod. "Could we be any more trapped?" Donna asked. When the temperature in the pod noticeably increased, I knew that one of the Pyroviles had stepped forward and was currently breathing fire at the escape pod. The Doctor put away his sonic screwdriver as Donna added mock-nonchalantly, "Little bit hot."

The Doctor, however, was more focused on the circuitry in front of us. "See? The energy converter takes the lava, uses the power to create a fusion matrix, which welds Pyrovile to human. Now it's complete, they can convert millions."

"But can't you change it with these controls?" Donna demanded desperately.

"Of course I can, but don't you see? That's why the soothsayers can't see the volcano. There is no volcano. Vesuvius is never going to erupt. The Pyrovile are stealing all its power... They're going to use it to take over the world," the Doctor explained, growing more and more distressed.

"But you can change it back?" Donna asked frantically.

"I can invert the system, set off the volcano, and blow them up, yes." The Doctor looked incredibly overwrought. "But, that's the choice. It's Pompeii or the world."

Donna gasped, immediately displaying a heartbroken expression. "Oh, my God," she breathed.

The Doctor looked off into middle distance, seeming deeply appalled and consternated. "If Pompeii is destroyed then it's not just history, it's me. I make it happen." In that moment, I felt such sympathy for the Doctor that I felt like my heart might just break in two. The Doctor had always tried so hard to do what's right and this is what he got for just trying to leave and not get emotionally attached to the people of Pompeii so he wouldn't try to save them, for he knew that he would eventually try to if he stayed too long.

The Doctor started to fiddle with the circuits and their controls. "But the Pyrovile are made of rocks. Maybe they can't be blown up," Donna hypothesized.

"Vesuvius explodes with the force of twenty four nuclear bombs. Nothing can survive it." The Doctor stood up and watched Donna and I gravely. "Certainly not us." He glanced at me for a moment, anguish apparent on his face. "I am so sorry, Joyce."

"Never mind us," Donna piped up, tearing up, and I nodded to confirm her statement. After all, I was pretty sure that we'd survive this. Keywords being: _pretty sure,_ but hey, you can never be 100% positive about something.

The Doctor stared at us for a second, then leaned forward and put his hands on a stone lever. "Push this lever and it's over. Twenty thousand people." He shook his head, looking grief-stricken. Donna started to cry for real and she and I moved closer to him and simultaneously put our hands over his in a show of support. The Doctor looked up, shocked, at each of our faces (there was one of us on either side of him). I nodded at him, trying to convey that I would help him get through this awful mental burden once we'd gotten safely to the TARDIS. Finally, as one, we took a huge breath for inner strength and pushed the lever.

At once, the ground started to shake and something in the air shifted. After a few seconds, the pod flew up and we all went crashing around the walls, Donna and I screaming our heads off. I expected that I'd have some _very_ interesting bruises later on if I even _survived_ all of this. Finally, after probably flying through the air and out of the volcano, the pod landed with a grinding _thump._ The Doctor, Donna and I climbed out, exhausted.

The Doctor looked back at the hollow-out rock. "It _was_ an escape pod." I stretched a bit, glad that we had survived the flight out of Vesuvius but knowing that we'd have to sprint for our lives very soon, once the Doctor noticed the avalanche of ash rolling down the mountain towards us...

He grabbed our hands and started running. Ah, yes. He'd noticed, all right. We made it to the town and dashed through the chaotic streets of Pompeii. By now, the heavy ash had blocked out the sun, so it was almost like nightfall if it weren't for the screams of confusion and terror echoing from everywhere. My heart pounded hard as I felt ash falling down on us, knowing that we didn't have much time.

The Doctor paused in the middle of the street, squinting to find his way back to Caecilius' villa while poor, _poor_ Donna was screaming her lungs out, trying to help the townspeople. "Don't! Don't go to the beach! Don't go to the beach, go to the hills! Listen to me! Don't go to the beach, it's not safe! Listen to me!" She noticed a lost little boy crying in fear a few feet away and she said softly, "Come here," making to pick him up.

A woman ran up and picked him up, yelling, "Give him to me!" and rushed off.

Donna focused on me, sobbing and desperate. I felt so bad for her and for everyone in Pompeii. I had seen the calcified people of Pompeii back on my Earth, and it had horrified me. They had all been in the fetal position on the ground and it had been all-too-easy to imagine how terrified and perplexed they must have been, not knowing why a mountain was spewing fire and ash on them as they burned or choked to death.

The Doctor grabbed our hands and pulled us along. "Come on."

We finally made it back to the villa and spotted Caecilius and his family cowering in a corner with Evelina in the middle of their protective arms. Caecilius begged, "Gods save us, Doctor."

The Doctor paused, appearing very anguished, but ultimately, he decided that he couldn't do anything about it and he ran into the TARDIS. Donna screamed after him, "No! Doctor, you can't. Doctor!" I watched as Caecilius looked between us and the TARDIS, confused but desperate and _scared._ At one point, I just couldn't look anymore, so I was a tiny bit glad when the Tardis engines started up. I ran inside, pulling Donna with me.

Donna slammed the door. "You can't just leave them!" she screamed.

"Don't you think I've done enough? History's back in place and everyone dies," the Doctor snapped, bitter. He flew around the console, hands darting to prepare the TARDIS for takeoff into the Time Vortex.

"You've got to go back! Doctor, I am telling you, take this thing back!" Donna screamed at him. She sagged against the console, seeming to lose all her furious adrenaline-fuelled energy. "It's not fair," she rasped despairingly, voice hoarse from shrieking.

"No, it's not." The Doctor hadn't yet looked up.

"But your own planet. It burned." Donna's face was thoroughly wet with tears now, and I'm sure that mine was as well.

The Doctor finally looked up at her, trembling with pure emotion. "That's just it. Don't you see, Donna? Can't you understand? If I could go back and save them, then I would. But I _can't._ I can never go back. I can't. I just _can't,_ I can't." He stared down at the console again.

"Just someone. Please. Not the whole town. Just save someone," Donna insisted, almost in a whisper. She sobbed; now it was _her_ turn to shake with raw emotion.

The Doctor glanced back up, face stoic but I spotted the twitching of his muscles as he reigned in his desire to sob with her. He looked to me and all I could do at that point was breathe, "Please, Doctor. Save them. Remember what I said earlier."

The Doctor sucked in a breath, staring into my eyes, before he rapidly pushed a few levers and rematerialized the TARDIS into Caecilius' villa. He ran to the door and held out his hand to them, saying, "Come with me."

Caecilius reached out and grabbed ahold of the Doctor's hand, accepting his help and helping his family up as well before rushing into the TARDIS. As soon as the four got inside, the Doctor slammed the door behind them, echoing Donna from moments before, and then dashed to the console to bring us to a hillside overlooking Pompeii from a safe distance. He didn't seem to be able to even _look_ at them. The family froze, gaping at the console room in absolute shock, but too tired and astonished to gasp out anything.

We landed and the Doctor herded us all out, Caecilius, his family, Donna and I noticeably stumbling, as if we were all drunk on the raw terror and horror of what we had all just witnessed. Once outside, we watched as Pompeii was filled with volcanic ash, engulfing the lights from people's houses and smothering the distant screams. I cringed at the mental images that I was imagining.

The Doctor stepped closer to Caecilius, whose face was filled with antipathy, and voiced, "It's never forgotten, Caecilius. Oh, time will pass, men'll move on, and stories will fade. But one day, Pompeii will be found again. In thousands of years." Caecilius turned towards him, his expression the same, and the Doctor continued, "And everyone will remember you."

I heard Donna ask Evelina, "What about you, Evelina? Can you see anything?"

Her reply was, "The visions have gone," was the Doctor and I moved closer to her.

The Doctor explained, "The explosion was so powerful it cracked open a rift in time, just for a second. That's what gave you the gift of prophecy. It echoed back into the Pyrovillian alternative. But not any more..." Here, the Doctor quirked his lips into a small smile. "You're free." She looked almost grateful then, even though tears were burning in her beryl eyes. She nodded slightly, and turned back to gaze at her hometown.

"But tell me," a voice piped up to our left. It was Metella, and she looked to be on the verge of a breakdown. "Who are you, Doctor? With your words, and your temple containing such size within?"

"Oh, I was never here. Don't tell anyone."

Caecilius stepped forward, Metella following him. "The great god Vulcan must be _enraged._ It's so... _volcanic._ It's like some sort of... _volcano._ " I glanced at the Doctor as he realized that _he_ had created the word volcano through the events of this terrible day. I turned back as Caecilius gasped, voice breaking, "All those people."

Metella reached for her husband and held onto him; he responded by holding her close and hugging her for comfort as much as she was hugging _him_ for the same reason. Quintus moved without speaking to Evelina's side, taking her hand in his and squeezing it. She squeezed back, swallowing several times to prevent the tears from overflowing from her eyes. I watched as Caecilius consoled Metella and as the two siblings stood side by side, all of their gazes boring in on the incinerating and chock-full-of-burning-ash Pompeii.

The Doctor back up and touched Donna's arm and mine, silently telling us that it was time to slip back into the TARDIS and leave. I nodded, but just before I stepped into the time machine, I whispered, "Goodbye."

Evelina and Quintus peered back at me, and they both replied faintly and in unison, "Thank you."

I just said, "Good luck in Rome," with a wink and small smile and went inside, closing the door behind me softly.

The Doctor and Donna were waiting for me at the console. Once he'd seen that I'd gotten in, the Doctor started to dematerialize the TARDIS. Donna stepped closer to him, thanking him quietly.

He looked up at her. "Yeah," he answered awkwardly, looking down and at anything but her. "You were right," he went on, but about what, I didn't know, because the two couldn't have talked about having someone in the TARDIS to make sure that the Doctor stayed true to his self-chosen name while fixing the inducer back at Adipose Industries because Donna had known by then that I was travelling with him. But I suppose I'll never get my answer, for the Doctor just declared. "Welcome aboard."

"Yeah," Donna acknowledged, smiling a bit. The Doctor smiled in reaction to her smile and pushed the lever that would bring us into the Time Vortex.

I sighed, deciding that it was time to hit the sack. "I'm going to bed, Doctor, Donna." I grinned tiredly, realizing what I'd just said, but it faded when I thought of what would happen to the two people in front of me because of it.

"Oh, sure," the Doctor replied, looking away and fiddling with the controls.

"Yeah, I think I'll go to sleep too." Donna smiled at me as passed me while I nodded to her and watched her make her way down the hall and go left.

I was about to leave the console room and follow her, when the Doctor piped up from behind me, "Joyce, a word."

Stopping, I turned around to see him holding onto the console, staring down at it. "Yes?" I asked tentatively.

He inhaled, then inquired, "Joyce... are they okay?"

I frowned. "Doctor, I don't know who you're talking about."

"Caecilius. And his family. Are... are they alright? Do you know what became of them?" came the hesitant answer.

"Oh! Yeah. Yeah, they're fine. They moved to Rome. I think I... _influenced_ them a bit in that department, but I knew that they'd do great there. Caecilius restarted his marble business and the family is rich again, living in an upper-class villa. He's going to try to get a contract for marble with the Egyptians which, if successful, will prove quite lucrative for him. Evelina is dressing in 'short' dresses and going out to see boys, but her father doesn't like it." We both chuckled. "And Quintus has cleaned up his act; he's studying to be a _doctor,_ you know." The Doctor startled at that one, surprised and a bit flattered. "And they say thanks to different household gods now - you, Donna and the TARDIS."

The Doctor gasped, but I could tell that he was pleased. "Oh, that's good. That's very good. I just wanted to know 'cause... I needed to know if saving them made a difference." He played with the controls again, then spoke up in his usual everything-is-peachy voice. "But, I'm glad that almost everything worked out."

"Yeah," I agreed, thoroughly sorry for him, Donna and most of all for everyone back in Pompeii, Caecilius and his family included, for it was a long walk to Rome from the ruins of Pompeii.

"Well, goodnight, Joyce."

I had started to leave the room, but I looked back at saw the Doctor's earnest yet exhausted face. "Goodnight, Doctor. You did good today, regardless of what you may think."

And with that, I left to go to bed and, at long last, try to sleep after the harrowing yet deeply affecting events of August 23rd, 79 AD.


End file.
